Says Who?
by kutnermd5
Summary: A dark force, a struggling friendship, a world adventure. with the world in shambles, 2 heroes must work together to save it. One a famous figure with a dark transformation, the other an amnesiac emissary with doubt and a knack for getting into trouble
1. The Start of it All

Says Who?

By KMD

Chapter 1 – The Start of it All

Says who – quite a popular term, usually used amongst those who are doubting themselves or others. When someone says something big about themselves or someone else, the other will come back with the exact saying. Lots of people will say it, mainly the people who are doubtful of themselves. And that's where the whole thing started.

A doubt.

Chip grunted in frustration every time he jumped up into the air. He jumped and reached for his necklace again, but just missed it as they moved it away from him. They had been doing this for a while now, each time just missing it. As frustrated as he was growing, Chip was also confused – what had he done to deserve this? All he did was wait for Sonic to return with his chocolate chipped cream sundae supreme. But then they showed up – the Apotos kid, Alexis, and his friends. Actually, Alexis stayed in the background while his friends did everything. They teased Chip, calling him small and weird, and snatched his necklace from his neck, believing it had some value. The insults didn't really bother him – it was the truth – the fact that they took the only key to his past was the real problem.

Chip didn't remember anything from his past. Ever since Sonic fell on him about a day ago. His home, his life, his age, even his real name – he couldn't recall any of it. Upon first meeting him, Sonic openly offered to help him recover his lost memories, which Chip happily accepted. They had wandered through the town of Apotos, asking any villager they came across if they knew the flying dog. Though, they all replied with the same thing – 'nope, never even seen him before'. It dampened his spirits, the fact that they were having such luck. He tried not to worry about it, just like Sonic had advised, but he couldn't help but trouble himself.

And now Chip was on his own, without Sonic, trying desperately to get his life possession back with no success. All while Sonic was just buying ice cream for him. Where was he? Why was he taking so long? In reality, it had only been three to five minutes since he left, but it felt like an eternity. Chip jumped for the necklace again, but they yanked it away from him just before he could grasp the string. He landed on the ground, just about to give up. Unfortunately for him, his 'rival' apparently seemed to take notice.

"What's the matter? Got nothing left?" The one holding his necklace taunted. A few of the others chuckled a little, while Alexis just looked around nervously. Chip grunted lowly and picked himself off the ground. He jumped for it a few more times, each time just missing it. Each time he grew more and more frustrated. But at the same time, he was getting a bit worried. What if he didn't get it back? What if they kept it and sold it to a far away place, a place where he couldn't even begin to imagine going to? He shook those thoughts from his head – he had to get it back, no matter what. Getting up, he leaped off the ground and tried to grab hold of the string of his necklace. Just missing, he decided to stay afloat using his small wings to fly. He grabbed hold the kid's arm, surprising him, and swung off. Chip reached for it again, missing it as the the guy yanked it away just in the nick of time. He followed the guy's hand wherever it went, usually flying a little bit higher each time, as the kid usually raised the necklace higher. He reached his palm as high as he could, standing on his toes, trying everything to keep the chihuahua away from the green gemstone. As quickly as he could, he swung his arm downward and held the necklace out as far as he could. Just as Chip began to fly over there, though, the kid blocked his way by putting his hand over the fairy's face. He squirmed and tried to get out of his grip, but he couldn't get his hand away from his face.

"Guys, stop! Sonic's coming!" He could hear Alexis yell. The guy's grip noticeably got looser, but not enough to pull himself out. He could hear the small group scurry around a bit, including the one who was grabbing hold of him, as if to form a small welcoming committee for him. Suddenly, a force came from the guy's hand, strong enough to throw the small dog back. Chip fell to the ground with a thud, and just laid there for a while, rubbing his cheek.

"H-hey Sonic," One of the boys greeted, as if nothing ever happened. _'That's mean,'_ Chip thought to himself.

"Hey guys," Sonic started. "Whatcha doing?"

"Just... talking, hanging out..." _'And stealing my necklace.'_ Chip thought long and hard about calling them out on that. That necklace was rightfully his. They had no right just to take it from him like that. But... those guys were bigger and stronger than him – a lot bigger and a lot stronger. They could easily pummel him to the ground, causing him to have a lot more than amnesia. But Sonic would protect him – he was almost sure of it... unless he took _their_ side.

Chip tried not to pay attention to the conversation, because all it really was was retellings and lies. But what caught his attention was his necklace – the green jewel was hanging by the string out of the kid's hand. It was free for anyone to grab. Even him. The boys would probably knock him out.. but... it was right _there_! Right in front of him, dangling by the string. Chip slowly got up off the ground and placed his hand on the gem. Grasping it, he took a deep breath and yanked the necklace right out of his hand. It wasn't long before the kid noticed and shouted 'Hey!' in surprise. Before anyone could turn around, Chip clutched the necklace in his hand and flew high up into the sky.

Sonic watched Chip fly up to the bell tower with curious eyes. What had just happened? "He stole it!" One of the boys shouted. '_Chip?'_ Sonic thought to himself. _'Steal what?'_ It wasn't like Chip to steal things. He didn't even know the fairy for that long, and he knew he wouldn't do something like that. Something wasn't right. He broke into a fast jog, then leaped off the ground, landing on a low rooftop. Running to the top of it, he jumped onto the tip of a flagpole. He ran and jumped on a lot more surfaces until he reached the bell tower. Finally, he reached the top level of the tall bell tower. The level was high up, and quite an open space. Despite the white marble the tower was made of, it was pretty dark inside. A perfect place to hide, really. Though Sonic knew he wasn't the only one who was aware of that. Calmly and slowly, he walked through the small room, calling out his friend's name softly.

"Chip?" His voice carried out a small echo. "Chip, are you here? Where are you?"

There was a brief moment of silence where nothing was making a sound except for the scuffing of Sonic's shoes. Suddenly a small sound, almost an inaudible whimper, echoed through the room, stopping the hedgehog in his tracks. Looking around again, he started walking slowly towards the small noise. "Chip?" he called out softly. He stopped walking for a second and looked ahead. There, he let out a small sigh – Chip was there, barely visible because the darkness inside the tower, sitting in the corner with his knees to his chest. The small dog was fiddling with something in his hands uneventfully – it was too dark to decipher what – and his head hung down with sadness of some sort. It didn't really seem like him, not the amnesiac, yet optimistic fairy Sonic had just met the day before. Something was bothering him.

"Chip." Sonic's voice echoed again. "Are you ok?" Chip glanced up for a small moment, then went back to fiddling with the thing in his hand, saying nothing except for a small grunt. "They boys down there said that you stole something from them... is that true?"

Chip seemed to cringe at the statement, but still said nothing. Sonic frowned. "C'mon Chip, what'd you take?" The fairy cringed again, but then let out a small sigh. He put his hands over his knees and opened them slowly, revealing the green gem necklace he had been wearing ever since Sonic had met him. The hedgehog gasped – that wasn't exactly what he was expecting. "Chip... did you steal-"

"I didn't steal _anything_, Sonic!" Chip finally shouted, sitting up. "They took it from _me_! I tried to get it back, but I couldn't. So when you came over and distracted them, I took it." Sonic pondered for a bit, then got down on one knee to level himself with the small dog.

"That's still kinda considered taking from someone," He informed. Chip stood up.

"Well I can't exactly just go up to them and say, 'hey, you've had my necklace for quite a while now – can I have it back now?' if that's where you're going," He pointed out, doing a small reenactment of what he just said in the air. Sonic wanted to chuckle at the gesturing, but he feared that would ruin the moment severely. He pondered again, and found himself a bit speechless.

"...You got a good point there, I'll give you that."

Chip gave a small grunt in agreement, slumping back to the ground. He looked down at the necklace in his hands with disappointment tinged in his eyes. Sonic also stared at it, trying to figure out the situation. "Just curious, but why is that so important to you?" Chip looked up. "I mean, it doesn't look all that special. It'd probably appeal greatly to my friend Rouge, but other than that, it doesn't look all that valuable."

"Because... because its the only thing I have," he answered reluctantly. "The only thing that I can actually call mine. And because its the only key I have to finding anything about my past. I mean, it may not help much, but without it, I'm next to hopeless."

Sonic wanted to say something, but nothing was really going through his head. "...Yeah, but.." was all he could really manage.

Chip scoffed, then got up onto his feet again. "Don't you get it? Without this," he held up his necklace, "I'm nothing! I have _no _chance of finding my memories! And without my memories, I really _am _nothing! I'll be walking around everywhere, not knowing who I am, or where I'm supposed to go, o-or anything!" He started to stutter a bit. He slowly dropped down to the ground, a sigh escaping his lips. Chip breathed heavily, slumping back to the marble ground.

"...Why do I even bother?" he questioned himself with disappointment in his voice. He clutched the necklace's lace tightly in his hand, dangling it lowly in front of himself. "I'm not gonna find out anything with this. It's pointless... I'm _never_ gonna get my memories back."

Sonic gasped silently, random things flying through his head. Doubt – that was what was going through the fairy's mind and shoving out his happiness. He had seen doubt in his friends before – Tails, Amy, Cream, even Shadow on one certain occasion. But he wasn't expecting to see any signs of doubt in Chip. Especially not this early in their journey.

"Don't say that, Chip," he started. "You'll find your memories."

The fairy gave him an eye. "Oh yeah? Says who?" Sonic stayed silent. That two word phrase always was a rock in his path. He didn't even know what it was about it that stumped him.

"Says..." he didn't really know what to say. "...Says me." It probably wasn't the best thing to say, but it was the only thing that was really coming to his head. "I believe in you. You _can_ find your memories, and you will too. And trust me, that's big coming from a world famous figure." Sonic pointed to himself and gave a small smirk, trying to lighten the mood.

"..Really?"

"Well, yeah, of course."

Chip looked up to him with sympathetic eyes, and managed a small smile. "Thanks, Sonic," he finally said, the disappointment clearly out of his voice. Sonic looked at him and smiled sincerely. Suddenly, he felt something cold drip down his finger. He raised his hand up a bit, and realized he was still holding the ice cream he had gotten Chip a while ago. He gasped at his ignorance towards it.

"Want some ice cream?" he asked. Chip gasped in surprise also – apparently, he had forgotten about the huge desert too.

"That'd be nice," he answered. Sonic handed the ice cream to him, and Chip grabbed the cone with both hands and pulled off on of the cherries. Sonic watched as the fairy pulled off the other cherries and put them into his mouth. He sometimes wondered how he was able to even eat the whole thing. It was about the same size as him, and yet he manages to finish it off without a problem.

"You're not gonna make me go back down there with those guys, are you?"

Chip's voice snapped Sonic out of his thoughts.

"Not if you don't want to," He answered, taking a seat on the marble floor. He heard the fairy sigh in relief.

"Thanks, Sonic," he smiled.

"Anytime, buddy."

that's just first chapter, don't worry - it'll get better, trust me. wow, first chapter story on ! lets see if i can figure this chapter thing out


	2. Night's Awakening

oh look, i actually did it! it took longer than i would've wanted it to, but i still got the second chapter up! anyway, enjoy~

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Chapter 2 – Night's Awakening

The day was somewhat quiet after the incident with the necklace. Sonic, who was still a bit rattled by the events earlier that day, waited for Chip to start any conversations for a small fear of bringing up the wrong topic. He watched as the fairy tied the necklace string into a knot around his neck. The two walked down the streets of Apotos, heading up to the sacred shrine of the town. It was nearly sunset, the light colored sky tinting the white buildings of the town an orange-yellow color by the reflection. It was very pretty, to say the least. One of the more attracting cities Sonic had seen. And relaxing, too. It was a quiet town with not all that many people living in it. On their first day there, Sonic had only seen about five people around. Plus the three other boys they saw earlier that day. The priest, Gregorios, had said yesterday that there hadn't been that many tourists since the recent earthquake. So Sonic just guessed that that was the reason.

Though the streets seemed to have cleared out already. Probably because of how some people acted during the nighttime. Or maybe they were afraid of his new werehog transformation. Sonic didn't blame them – he, too, would be somewhat repulsed by it. It wasn't a very pretty sight to look upon. The evidence was all around him. Chip, on first sight, ran away from him, cowering in fear behind a rock. The villagers of Apotos, who were used to seeing his regular blue-speedy-hedgehog form, all were surprised by his sudden new look and all asked if his had eaten something bad or had done something to his his hair. And his best friends, Tails, Amy, all the others, he didn't even wanna see their reactions. Tails... Sonic still had to find him and inform him of the situation. He just hoped he didn't have to meet with him at night.

The two walked down the street in silence, no conversations even beginning to start. The sun's glare was covered up by the night sky, the orange in the sky almost gone. Nothing made a sound except for Chip's wings flapping and a street light flickering on in the distance. It was that time again – time of another excruciating transformation. Sonic watched the sun disappear completely from the sky, leaving the starry night behind. He stopped walking and let out a quick sigh before falling to his knees. His hands rose to his head as he quivered in pain from the transformation. Sonic noticed Chip standing on the ground, watching in fear, as he knew he couldn't do anything. Sonic's hands fell to the ground as he grunted in pain. His fingers recoiled as sharp claws penetrated through his gloves, ripping them. Long, rugged fur grew on almost all parts of his body, all turning a dark blue color. His tan wrists, chest, and muzzle all turned a pale blue, matching with the dark blue. The top of his cleats ripped, and spikes grew on the bottoms and the white stripes (though, Sonic wasn't entirely sure how that even happened).

Sonic breathed heavily, still on his hands and knees. The transformation was finally complete. It was one of the more painful processes Sonic had felt in his life. He was glad it was over – it felt horrible. Chip walked up to him cautiously, attempting to look into his eyes.

"Are you ok, Sonic?" he asked. The 'werehog' looked up to him.

"Ugh... yeah," he answered, attempting to slow his breathing a bit. "I just need to get used to that." His voice was rougher than usual.

"It looked painful."

He got up from the ground. "Yeah, well, it was."

Chip looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "Well, now what do we do?"

Sonic sighed. "We do what we did last night." He pointed over to the shrine at the top of the hill. "Let's go." He got down on all fours and started a fast run. Chip followed him in the air, flying right beside him. The two ran through the rest of the town and up the hill as fast as they could. Sonic stopped running as they approached the entrance of the shrine, breathing heavily.

"That was a bad idea," he wheezed out, cursing himself for wasting his energy so quickly. His transformation took away his looks as well as his speed – one of the things he couldn't live without. His speed was his passage to freedom. Losing his speed made the hedgehog feel limited and locked up. Sonic could only run at high speed in short distances in this form, and the speed was nowhere near as close to his usual speed. One of the many reasons why he hated his new werehog form. There were some good things, though – decent, anyways. Though his speed was greatly reduced, his physical strength had gained immensely. He couldn't preform his all famous homing attack, but Sonic was able to get up and into close combat with his enemies with no problems. Not to mention, he just recently learned that his arms could stretch in this form, and that usually helped a lot. Of course, it gave him new challenges to face, like swinging on and off poles or picking up and throwing his enemies against the walls to destroy them. It was different, that was for sure. Something Sonic was gonna have to get used to.

_'Oh well,'_ he thought to himself. He stepped into the shrine, Chip slowly following him. They walked through the the dark hallway at a slow pace, Chip's necklace glowing a dim green. The main room shined like a clear, bright day. Sonic gasped, as he had forgotten about the daytime-like room. The moment he stepped into it, a dark purple aura surrounded him, changing back the effects of the night. He was back to his regular self, and back on his knees. He got up to his feet, breathing heavily. The re-transformation wasn't nearly as painful as the real thing, but it was still energy-taking.

"Don't you get tired of changing all the time?" Chip asked, breaking the silence. Sonic sighed.

"You have no idea."

The two walked through the large, bright room. Sonic wished he could just stay there for the rest of the night so he wouldn't have to endure the painful werehog transformation again. Sadly though, the world wasn't gonna save itself, and he was always the one to save it. He sighed again, and walked up the stairs to the two doors. A red one with an orange-yellow sun on it, and another one which was already opened. Sonic thought about going through the red one earlier that day, but decided he would do it tomorrow. He stepped a few feet into the moon door – which was already opened due to their exploration last night – and shut his eyes and cringed as he entered the darkness. As expected, the purple aura surrounded him, completely engulfing him in the dark. His long blue fur was back, the spikes on his shoes, his claws, his fangs, everything. Sonic sighed again, and put a hand to his head – he was beginning to get a headache from all the changing. He continued walking into the dark hallway, shaking his head as he went.

Sonic jumped to the ground, landing swiftly. As he straightened up his posture, he looked out into the distance and howled loudly, like one of those werewolves in movies would.

"What'd you do that for, Sonic?" Chip asked, flying up to him.

"Don't know..." he replied, "just sounded right."

Sonic started walking down the path, which he quickly turned into a decent paced run. Even though he was different now, he still felt like doing what he was known best for – running at high speed. Unfortunately, he couldn't run at the speed of sound in this form, and he couldn't go as long as he usually would. Coming up around a corner, he spotted a door at the end of the pathway, surrounded by some pottery and plants. Strangely though, the door didn't seem to have a handle – or a knob for that matter.

"Perhaps there's a switch somewhere?" Chip suggested, shrugging his arms. Sonic just nodded silently, and smashed the potted plants beside the door. And expectantly, there was, in fact, a switch hidden in the corner. "Jeez Sonic, did ya _have_ to break that? There IS a better way."

"Yeah, well, I can get pretty reckless sometimes," Sonic admitted. "And smashing everything is just easier than moving it out of the way." The werehog stepped on the green switch and waited a moment. With a small 'ping' noise, the door rose up off the ground, opening a passage. Sonic got off the switch and went through it, Chip following, seemingly worried about the broken pots.

"What if someone gets mad about those getting broken?" he questioned, looking back at them worriedly.

"Oh please, Chip. It's not like anyone's gonna come through here, anyway. The priest guy said that you need a key to get through here, anyways – and we're the only ones who have that key," Sonic acknowledged as he rounded a corner. Suddenly, three nightmare-like creatures came from out of the ground. Sighing, Sonic wasted no time in charging at them. As he ran, he jumped right at one of the three and knocked it down. While it was dazed, he punched it a couple times until it lay on the ground and evaporated into nothing. Sonic swung around to the other creatures, giving each a couple punches and claw swipes. In a few seconds, they turned into a dark purple gas-like substance, which quickly evaporated. Giving a small 'hmph,' Sonic continued on, keeping his running pace and rounding another corner.

He got down on all fours and began running down the pathway. Slowing down around another corner, he turned to Chip, who had completely stopped, gazing out into the horizon.

"It's so pretty," he murmured, a small smile lightening up his face as if he had never seen the night sky before. Though who knew – maybe he hadn't.

"Yeah, it is." Sonic walked over near the edge of the bridge, but was stopped when something sharp his his back. "OW! What the...?" he turned around to see three bee-like creatures gathering around him. "Oh, you are so gonna pay for that!"

He swiped one out of the way with his claws and slammed it down to the ground. Passing the other two by, he ran around an oddly placed rock and picked up a wooden crate and tossed it at them. It only hit one, but it seemed to do the trick - the bee fell to the ground and disappeared. Sonic picked up the other crate and did the same thing to it. It seemingly died instantly, falling to the ground and evaporating into nothing. Sighing, Sonic rubbed the part of his back where he was stung and continued on down the path. He began running on all fours again, and jumped across a rather wide ditch which he personally didn't think he'd make if he had preformed a regular jump.

Sonic dashed through a small dark cave – or rather just giant rocks piled up on themselves – with Chip following along. At the end of the 'cave', five more creatures erupted from the ground, three, regular nightmares and the other two, bees. He made a quick dash towards the nightmares and swatted them out of the way, knocking them down. Almost grabbing one of the wooden crates, one of the bees flew right at him and stung the werehog clear in the face. "OW! Good _god_, man!" Sonic picked up the crate he was originally aiming for and tossed it at the bee, hitting it straight on. He didn't have enough time to reach for any other crates, so he just swiped his claw out to the other bee, slicing it into pieces that soon disappeared.

Sonic sighed, placing a hand on his new bee sting, wincing as he touched it. Chip moved his hand out of the way, examining the wound.

"Ooph... that doesn't look too pretty," he commented, giving a concerned look.

"Of course. I don't look anything like myself now, so why should I need to look _decent_, either?" Sonic rolled his eyes sarcastically, walking down the path. Turning his path around, he walked up the stairs until he was on one side of a small jump. Dashing, he lept over to the other side, landing safety. Though, a rather peculiar obstacle blocked his path. On the walls, there were little knob things sticking out. Sonic pressed his lips and grabbed onto one. Looking up at the next, he swung himself up as high as he could, grabbing onto it. He swung himself across, grabbing another, then swung up to the top of the building. A ledge hung off of it, much like ledges he had used before to pull himself up. He grabbed onto it and moved slowly over to the left, where he dropped down to the other part of the building.

Another ledge hung in the corner, in which he grabbed onto and pulled himself up. Grabbing onto some poles and swinging off, he landed on the top of the building, where he walked up some more stairs. The two were up on one of the moonsoaked alleyways again, Chip expectantly stopping to look at the sky again. Sighing again, Sonic pulled him away from the sight, continuing to walk ahead.

"Not now, Chip."

"Why not? All I'm doing is looking at the sky."

Sonic shook his head. "Past experiences," he answered. "Every time I stop to look at something beautiful like that, some random enemies appear out of nowhere and try to beat the crap outta me." He walked through a hallway of some sort. Once he stepped foot out of it, more nightmares appeared out of the ground, as if on cue. "Like now, for example."

He charged right at them, slashing at each and every one of them with his razor sharp claws. They all fell, then more enemies with a ball-like form appeared. Sonic wasted no time swatting them all to the ground as if he had done it a million times before. They fell to the ground, defeated. Though, one that was still alive apparently felt the urge to try and kill the werehog, and jumped onto his head, bouncing right off it.

"Augh! Does my head look like some sort of trampoline? Die already!" Admittedly, Sonic was getting rather frustrated from getting pummeled by all these creeps. He swiped the last ball creature down, breathing heavily. All the fighting was beginning to take its toll on him. And although he hadn't been fighting all that much, he was still very new to the new form he was put in. Shaking his head, he walked up some stairs and grabbed onto the poles that were his only means of getting across, swinging himself over until he reached the next ledge.

Sonic walked across the narrow walkway, careful not to fall down again. He reached another platform of the ruin, and walked over to a lever.

"Wonder what that does?" Chip spoke his thoughts out loud. Also curious, Sonic pulled on the lever handle, swinging to the other side. Though... "..It didn't do anything?"

Sonic looked around at the place. "Wait a second," he murmured, walking over to what looked like an old wooden elevator. "Get in," he commanded, turning to Chip. The fairy nodded and flew in. Sonic stepped a few feet into the elevator, and expectantly, it started to move downward. Once it stopped moving, the two got out, only to be greeted by even more enemies.

"Aw come on!" Sonic complained. "Gimme a break already!"

He threw his claws out at two of the nightmares, then tossing three others into the air, he slammed them down to the ground, where they dissolved. More came up, racing his way. This time there were a few bees mixed into the gang. Sonic cringed at the thought of those bee stings he had received earlier, and went straight to them first, knocking them out of the air. More bees surrounded him, but he was able to slash all of them but one down. He made a mad dash over to the last one and swiped his claws at it, but it just moved out of the way. He tried slashing it out of the air again, but it just moved again and stung him straight in the face.

"Oh, that is _it_! You are getting on my last nerve!" Sonic dashed over to a wooden crate and picked it up. Shaking his head madly, he hurled it at the bee. It fell to the ground, making one last squeak noise. "Oh, don't cry to me," he growled. "You brought it upon yourself... ya little bi-"

"Hey Sonic! I think I see the exit nearby!" Chip called out, already a step ahead of him. Sonic ran over to the edge of the ruin and grabbed onto the pole, sliding down. He grabbed another pole and repeated the process until he was all the way down. He walked across the narrow ledge, practically hugging the wall. "Careful Sonic," Chip acknowledged.

"Yeah, yeah..."

Sonic grabbed onto the ledge that was above him, and started to move across it, Chip occasionally telling him to be careful and not to rush things. Moving down to the lower ledge, he shimmered across it, then made a beeline for the exit, as Chip had said there would be.

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you know, despite how long it took to actually start writing the second half of this chapter (aka, the level part), it was actually pretty fun! i had to play through the level (Apotos 2nd night level if you haven't figured it out) and write out everything as the second half of the chapter. and that was why it had been put off - i got the ps3 version of the game, Sonic Unleashed, and was busy playing that, so i didn't have time to write this. then, when i got to the final boss, i told myself that when i finished the game, i'd write the rest of this chapter.

i actually finished this chapter yesterday, after i got too damn frustrated with the final boss battle (damn it, Chip! quit dying already! i don't have enough lives for both you AND Sonic!) i thought it was gonna be frustrating, having to pause every five seconds and write everything down - and granted, it was a little - but it actually was fun!

and some of the things that happened to Sonic and Chip in this chapter are reflections of what happened as i was playing through the game.

For example, when Chip stopped to look at the sky, then Sonic got stung by a bee? that actually happened to me as i was playing the game. the first time i ever played it, i always stopped to look at the scenery, 'cause its so damn beautiful! then when i said something, enemies appeared out of nowhere and started to beat the ever living crap out of me.

now all the bee stings and such that Sonic got? that happened to me as i was playing throughout the level again to write this. i really did get stung by bees 3 times throughout the playthrough, and that one ball enemy _did_ jump on my head.

so yeah - anything that happens to Sonic and Chip in this story (at least in the levels, anyways), its most likely happened to me, or something similar happened to me as i was playing through.

ok, just so you know, i was planning to post all the Apotos chapters all at once, but i got held up by that level delay. not to mention i got a problem - i'm trying to decide whether i should put the second Apotos day level and the third Apotos night level in the same chapter or not. so please... help me out on that! i can't update if i don't have an answer!

please review!


	3. Day Now, Night Later

The previous day had been a nightmare – at least to Sonic and Chip's terms, it was. Even though they had just begun, Sonic's transformations were driving him insane. It was too painful to go through, he believed he moved too slow, he wasn't used to relying on close combat – everything just felt wrong and out of place. While Chip... Chip didn't feel right since the necklace incident. Since then, he was on the lookout for any of the boys who were part of it. Though, he didn't see any of them except for Alexis, but he seemed to look nervous every time the two passed by him and often avoided them as best as he could.

Sonic, having too much of a bad night, decided to remind himself of his original, _real_ form by going through through the sun door they had passed by twice now. Grabbing hold of Chip's wrist, he zoomed as fast as he could up the hill behind the town to the sacred shrine. He entered the shrine, making a beeline for the door with the blazing sun on it. Stopping in front of it, he allowed Chip to place the sun tablet they found before into the hole in the door. Once the missing piece was in, the door shined brightly for a second, then rose off the ground. Sonic nodded to Chip, then without saying a word, they both walked in.

* * *

Sonic gave a light stretch to his legs before gazing into the distance. White buildings filled the area topped by hot pink flowers and green leaves. Giving a small smirk, the hedgehog blasted off, leaving all the plants blown with the wind. Rounding a turn, he hit a dash pad which sent him flying down the path. He went through a small tunnel, then homing attacked his way over to a spring. Sonic jumped onto it, then spiraled over to a different path. He hit another dash pad, then ran down the small alleyway.

Sonic turned, then jumped onto a spring, bouncing himself into the air. He landed on a small wooden platform, then jumped through the red ring at the end of it. He spiraled down to the ground, then continued down the path. Sonic started running down a small path that was high above the ocean. He looked around, taking in the sights as he ran right past them, then bounced up to a different step using a spring. He ran up and around a loop, then was boosted onto a rail. Grinding down it, he jumped off the rail and slipped right through a small hole in the path, sliding down the hill. He slipped through another hole, then bounced up a spring.

Sonic homing attacked some flying robots (whom he presumed belonged to Eggman), then landed on a rail. He jumped off, homing attacked on three more robots, then grabbed onto a handle which sprung him up onto the next step. Hitting a dash panel, he sprinted down a circle path around a windmill then dashed off a boost ramp. He landed on top of a rather loopy path, then continued sprinting down. He boosted himself through three rings, then spiraled down to the ground. Sonic-boosting through some robots, he rounded a corner and zipped down the path.

"Isn't this great, Chip?" Sonic shouted out to his friend. Though, there wasn't any response. The hedgehog looked back at the path behind him, and spotted the fairy following, but at a much farther distance. Apparently he couldn't keep up with him like Tails could. Sonic chuckled to himself, then hit another dash panel. "Hurry up, Chip!"

Sonic drifted around a corner, hit another dash panel, and sprung off of a spring. He homing attacked the flying robots, then boosted through a ring, landing on another panel. Dashing down the path, he rounded another corner and continued until he sprinted onto some more dash panels and eventually reached a ramp. He sprinted onto it and landed safely onto another pathway. He continued down, the path eventually joining with a different one, then ran across the narrow route. Some more dash panels sent him bolting up a bridge all the way to a small island, then he ran into a spring and homing attacked his way over to a rainbow colored ring. He boosted through and landed on the ground, continuing on. Drifting on a turn, Sonic ran into some more dash panels which sent him around another corner. The hedgehog bolted into a small tunnel, then onto another bridge. At the end was a boost ramp, which sent him flying over to another small island. He sprinted up the stairs, then ran across the bridge. Needless to say, he was having the time of his life.

Chip, on the other hand, was having quite a bit of trouble keeping up with the blue blur. He was quite a ways from him, Sonic only a small blue figure in his gaze ahead. He panted, and tried desperately to fly a little faster to catch up to him. Though, something suddenly stopped him. There was a huge shadow around him, as if the sun was going down or something.

_'Did it just get... darker?'_ he mentally asked himself. Slowly gazing upward though, what he saw rather shocked him. A huge turquoise blue street sweeper robot was right above him, increasing his speed towards the blue hedgehog. Giving a small scream of surprise, he bolted over to Sonic as fast as his wings could take him, which was surprisingly pretty fast. He caught up to the hedgehog, almost going the same speed as him.

"Oh, so you finally decided to join me, huh?" he asked, giving a small smirk of sarcasm. Chip payed no attention, and looked at him worriedly.

"S-something huge is chasing us!" he shouted out, looking back at the robot. The machine was just yards away from the two, looking about ready to charge at them. Sonic gave a small glance at it, then continued to smirk.

"Looks like we're gonna have to out run him!" That said, the hedgehog continued sprinting down the path, staying near the center, and avoiding the street sweeper's bladed arms as it charged right at them. Chip kept close to Sonic, not wanting to get hit by the blades. The robot withdrew, and Sonic boosted himself forward, leaving both the robot and Chip in the dust. Both dashed right back, the robot again thrusting its arms forward. Sonic stayed in the middle of the path, as the robot was apparently too stupid to try attacking there. The hedgehog smirked and rolled his eyes, then dashed forward again, boosting himself off a ramp.

Though, surprisingly, he landed in back of the robot instead of in front. "What're we gonna do, Sonic?" he heard Chip ask.

"Hang tight and stay close to me, Chip – I got an idea!" he replied before boosting himself at the robot. He got a better hit on it than it did on him, as he rammed right into it. He boosted into it again, and successfully crashed into it. Though, the robot seemed to take notice, and jumped back behind the two. Finally, it actually thrusted both its arms down the center – the part where Sonic was always at. Though, before it could reach him, the hedgehog boosted right off a ramp and was sent flying into the air. The process before repeated itself, as the robot landed right in front of Sonic, giving him another chance to attack. He boosted into the robot three times, the last time sending it flying down to the ground all beat up and worn out. Sonic quickly jumped over the robot right before it blasted to pieces, dashing off another ramp. He landed, then continued down the bridge all the way to the last ramp, landing on a small island, which he presumed was the end of the area. He waited a second for Chip to catch up, which he did a few seconds after he stopped, breathing heavily.

"Wasn't that fun, Chip?" he asked, despite already knowing full well what the answer would be. The fairy landed on the ground, about ready to collapse.

"Nygh... that was too tiring," he answered, grabbing hold of Sonic's leg for support.  
"I don't care if I like you looking like this – its easier to keep up with you when you're in your other form."

Sonic just smirked and gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, well, get used to it, pal – 'cause I'm gonna be doing this every chance I get." Not paying attention to Chip's over-exaggerated sigh, he walked over to the exit. Though, a small glimmer of red on the ground stopped him. Sonic stopped to picked up the thing and held it in his hand. It looked like the sun tablet Chip found earlier in their quest, only adorned with a red jewel. Not only that, but that was only one piece.

* * *

Night seemed to have come extremely quick that day – or at least it felt like it. After a rather exciting run around the town (or at least Sonic thought it was – Chip just complained that he could never keep up with him), Sonic didn't want that certain time of day coming around anytime soon. Despite how he preferred seeing him in his regular form, Chip didn't really care what form he was in – just as long as he didn't have to endure anything like he had to earlier.

The two started to walk over to the shrine again, as there was still stuff to do there. Though, they were pulled over by one of the villagers, Eric, who claimed he knew something about Tails.

"Yeah, earlier, a two-tailed fox came up to me and told me to tell you to look for him if I saw you," the villager informed. "He said that he'd probably be around, if not, in the shrine around now. His description was a bit different, but you gotta be the one he was talking about!"

Yep, definitely Tails. Sonic wondered what he was doing here at that time, but then shrugged the thought away from his mind as he thanked Eric for his help and bolted up the hill all the way to the shrine. Chip, still a bit tired from earlier that day, slowly followed behind, entering the shrine with him. The two rushed over to the moon door as fast as they could, Sonic changing into his regular self then back again as he went through the shrine. They went through the tunnel and into the stage, anxious to see what hell lie ahead.

* * *

Looking out into down the narrow pathway, Sonic gave out a howl like he had the previous nights. With Chip following slowly behind, he walked through the path, reaching a rather big area at the end of it. He stepped in and looked around – sheer rock cliffs on one side, a small wall blocking the sight of the vast ocean on the other. Occasionally glancing at his surroundings, Sonic continued through the area, eventually walking into a small arena with nightmares popping out of the ground.

"Nice way to greet someone who's barely walked five feet from the entrance," Sonic growled, an obvious annoyance in his voice. Quickly, he rushed over to one of the monsters and swung his arms at it violently. Once it died, Sonic turned to the others coming his way and quickly gave each of them a beat down until they were nothing but a dark purple gas. Though, one that he hadn't killed just yet cartwheeled itself at him, attempting to rid of the werehog. Thinking fast, Sonic punched it right in the face, stopping it in its tracks. But he wasn't quite done yet – more nightmares popped up from the ground, heading towards him. The werehog lashed his claws at each and every one of them as quickly as he could, ridding them of their presence. One, though, cartwheeled itself into Sonic, stopping his attacks.

"Damnit – and I thought I was doing good!" he mumbled to himself before whacking the rest of the monsters to the ground. More came out, and Sonic started to think they would never stop coming. He quickly slammed them all down, hoping to dear god that that was the last of them. Thankfully, no more came, and Sonic sighed full of relief. But something suddenly stopped the two – a force field to the next area, with three missing parts, much like the one they had seen earlier in their journey. "This again?"

Chip came out of hiding (hiding where, Sonic wasn't very sure) and flew over him, passing him by. He stopped in front of a blocked doorway, observing it up to down, left to right. "You think you can knock this down with a punch, Sonic?" he asked, turning to him.

Sonic nodded, walking up to it. "I'll do more than knock it down – I'll break it into pieces!" He punched the fragile parts of the rock until it broke. The two walked in, looking around; though, there didn't seem to be anything around. "Lets check somewhere else," Sonic advised, walking out. He ran around the broken down ruin and reached another, this one with a clear view of one of the keys needed to put down the force field.

"That was easy," Chip acknowledged, flying above the ruins, looking out for anything even remotely interesting. The two walked out and continued down the path, looking into any entrances that might've led to a key. Finally, they reached a white room with columns and a two inch deep pool in the middle of it. But as soon as he stepped foot into the room, bees erupted from the ground.

"Noo! Not you freaks again!" Sonic shouted out in misery, recalling all the bee stings he had received last night. The stings were still there, but the swelling had gone down immensely. Thinking fast, he swatted one bee out of the way, killing it. He then rushed over to some crates in the corner and threw it at another bee. The insect was knocked to the ground, dead, but unfortunately, Sonic's aim was apparently not that great, as he had also taken out one of the other crates as well. _'I'm gonna regret doing that later, aren't I?' _Sonic thought to himself. He quickly raced over to another set of crates, followed by the killer bees. Picking one up, he chucked it at one of the bees, knocking it senseless. Sonic quickly reached for the last crate, but was instead pushed away by a bee sting in the face.

He growled loudly, glaring at the insect. "Hrph, you are _so_ lucky I can't get angered that easily." Sonic picked up the crate and chucked it at the bee. Sadly, though, he missed as the bee quickly moved to the right. The werehog growled then lunged at the bee, swiping it with one of his claws. While it was dazed, Sonic took the opportunity to slam it into the ground, ridding it of the world forever. He took a good look around, looking out for any more enemies. None came, and Sonic found himself already breathing heavily.

"I hate those friken bees," he murmured to himself, putting a hand to his new bee sting. Sighing, he ran out of the room in search of the other two keys he needed to pass through. Another one was ahead, though it seemed somewhat suspicious. One in plain view was normal, but two? With nobody around to guard it? It didn't seem right. Stopping right at the entrance, he turned to Chip.

"How much do you wanna bet that there's gonna be enemies in here?" he questioned. The fairy shrugged.

"I don't have any money," he answered truthfully. "Though, you're right – there probably is. Soo..." he looked to the ground, then glanced at Sonic with a smile. "Good luck! I'll be waiting over here!" He quickly flew away to a corner, hiding in the darkness. Sonic scoffed.

"Cute. Real cute." Sighing again, he stepped into the ruin cautiously, expecting to be once again surrounded by nightmares. Though, it never came. "Hm. Weird." He ran over to the key and lay a clawed hand on it. The key disappeared, but enemies expectantly reappeared. Sonic gave an eye roll before knocking some of the monsters into oblivion. Though, he got struck by the enemies' fists a couple times, making his frustration levels rise. He slapped them to the ground, then turned over to another set of two enemies. Raising his claws, he swiped them at the two remaining nightmares, reducing them to the purple gas which quickly evaporated. Sonic walked out of the ruin, then turned over to the corner Chip said he'd be hiding in, giving a small gesture for him to follow. The two followed the path through the hill under the starry skies until they reached another ruin blocked off by a barrier. Giving a couple swift punches, Sonic broke down the barrier and grabbed the last key that was inside it, half expecting enemies to come out of nowhere. Thankfully none came, but he couldn't help but imagine if they did. Sonic walked out, the two once again following the path down to the force field which now had three white circles in it where holes used to be. As he approached it, the force field went down, and the two raced up the stairs.

Unfortunately the stage wasn't over just yet. They reached the top of the stairs, then some more nightmares came up from the ground. Though, one seemed bigger than the rest – and probably more frustrating, too. While Chip flew to the top of the fountain hiding from the monsters, Sonic charged at them, claws in full swing. The smaller nightmares came right up to him, allowing Sonic to attack and kill all of them without having to move an inch. Striking two more of the monsters down, he glanced at the biggest one, who hadn't really moved from the spot it was in before.

_'Wimp,'_ Sonic thought to himself as he hurled his claws at the monster. A few claw swipes did the trick, as the nightmare fell to the ground and evaporated into nothing. Surprisingly though, nothing else came after it. No more nightmares, not even any of those annoying-as-hell bees. Shrugging, Sonic called Chip down and they both charged up the path all the way to the end. It was a rather easy place to go through – or at least, it was easier than last night's route. Though, something made Sonic feel like the night wasn't completely over. He looked down at the ground, spotting a blue sparkle on the floor. Picking it up, he examined it – it looked like the tablet piece he found earlier, only adorned with a blue jewel instead of a red. He tried to imagine what they could possibly do, but the thought just hurt his already bruised mind. Sighing, he handed the tablet fragment to Chip to hang onto, who tried to piece the two fragments together, but with no avail.

Though, there didn't seem to be an exit around the area anywhere. Sonic scratched his head in curiosity, then spotted a lever at the far end of the dome. Curious, Sonic pulled on the lever to see what it led to. After he pulled it, a door suddenly lifted off the ground, letting the two pass through to a new section. The two walked through the doorway, walking in on a circle of nightmares, some enemies that looked like miniature dinosaurs, and one big, giant, titan-like monster with a huge wooden club. Chip stopped in his tracks, cowering at the huge monster while Sonic tried to get a better look on what was going on. Though he couldn't see anything, he could make out a small voice carrying out through the night.

"Augh- ngh! Hey – settle down guys! Come on!" An unmistakable voice – Tails. "H-help!"

Sonic's worst fears were confirmed when he saw his two-tailed friend fly above the enemies, cowering behind a wall.

"Tails!" he shouted out. He didn't seem to notice – but those monsters trapping him sure did! All of them turned their attention to Sonic, who was now regretting his action. Still – he had to defend for himself and his friend. Breathing in heavily, he charged right into the hoard of enemies, swiping some out of his way, all the way until he reached the titan. He landed a few lashes on him, but was suddenly struck by the titan's huge club. Landing on the ground, some of the smaller enemies took that as an opportunity to gang up on the werehog and attack. Sonic slowly got up, slashing some of the nightmares away, then charged right back at the titan.

Bad idea.

He got slammed against the club for the second time as he approached the giant. Skidding to the ground on his back, Sonic could've sworn some of his teeth were about to get knocked out of his mouth if he took another hit like that again. He regained his balance, swiped some of the smaller nightmares away from him, then slowly approached the titan, wiping a small dribble of blood away from his mouth. But he barely had time to cry out as the titan jumped in the air and land violently on the ground, producing a huge shock wave that slammed Sonic into the wall. He slid to the ground, slowly losing his consciousness – and his temper. He heard Chip call his name out in worry, but paid no attention to it as he regained his balance and growled at the titan profusely. Swiping some dinos away, fire seemingly burned in his eyes as Sonic gave a loud howl, unleashing his anger.

He ran over to the giant nightmare, lashing his claws out at it as much as he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the titan raise its giant club at him, ready to swing again. Unfortunately for it, though, Sonic wasn't ready to get knocked to the ground for the forth time by this freak. Before it could swing, Sonic punched it right in the gut, stopping it from doing anything. He then swung himself onto its head, slamming his spiked feet into it, which made it lose a great deal of balance. To finish it off, the werehog grabbed it by the top horns and dragged it straight to the ground, ending its life.

Sonic breathed heavily, turning to the rest of the nightmares, which surprisingly weren't that many. Guess the shock wave took them out as well. He slowly raced over to them, and swiped his claws at them, knocking them into oblivion. Eventually, they evaporated into nothing, leaving nothing but specks of dust behind. Giving a sigh, he turned to where Tails was hiding, trying to calm his sudden anger down.

"Hey Tails," he greeted quietly, the moonlight shining through the clouds.

"...Sonic?"

It rather shocked him that Tails actually recognized him. None of the villagers seemed to have – then again, that kid was a super genius.

"What're you doing out here?"

Peeking out from behind the wall, Tails spoke. "Sonic... Is that really you?" he asked, flying down to him. "That's a new look – what happened?"

Sonic gave a dull smirk. "You know me – never a dull moment," he answered. Chip finally decided to show his face after a long silence coming from him, and jumped out in front of the fox.

"Man, you look horrible! You want some chocolate?" he asked, pulling out a chocolate bar Sonic didn't even know he had. Tails looked slightly more distraught than he did before.

"Uhh... sure?"

…

"...That's some story," Tails acknowledged after hearing the whole situation. "I'll bet that means that you turning into... that.. and the planet breaking apart are somehow related."

"I need to find Eggman and make him fix this, and fast!" Sonic confirmed, recalling their little fix up in space.

"About that," Tails interrupted. "I think I might know someone who knows something about what's going on here!" Sonic listened intently. "Professor Pickle over at Spagonia University. I came to this city to collect some data – if we add that to his research findings, we might be able to get to the bottom of this!"

"Spagonia?" Sonic questioned. "That's a continent over. An easy jog if the planet weren't broken."

"Don't worry about it! My Tornado will get us there in a flash! Lets get going!" Tails confirmed, pointing over to his plane.

Sonic nodded. "Leave it to you, Tails!" The three hopped in, Tails taking the pilot's seat, Sonic standing on the back seat, and Chip riding on the bottom wing. The three took off, leaving the town of Apotos behind. Sonic was somewhat sad to leave the place behind, as he had liked the town a lot, but alas, the world wasn't gonna save itself.

* * *

...

...

i don't like writing out the day stages. sure, they go by really quickly, but instead of having to pause every 5 seconds, in them, i now have to pause every TWO seconds, then write everything down. which, by the way isn't all very interesting.

seriously, the most interesting thing i got to write down about that stage was the part where Sonic and Chip were being chased by the street sweeper thing. so yeah. the day stages are fun to play in, but not to write out in words.

the night stages, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. since the werehog goes a speed that i can actually keep up with, its very easy and very fun to write out the night stages. and i can actually fit some dialogue and character development into them!

also, just a note - not all of the night stages that are gonna be written out are gonna be from the wii version - i'll have one or two stages from the ps3 (360) version - but only the night stages - i can barely go through one of the day stages in the ps3 version without killing myself somehow, so what makes you think i can write them out without going insane?

also, i'm in a fix - i'm pondering whether or not i should keep Professor Pickle's funny-yet-serious personality (ie, his love for cucumber sandwiches). originally, i would, but this is gonna to be a serious story, not a funny one.

so please help!


	4. The Legend of Dark Gaia

yeah, i changed the description of this story. i just thought the last one was quite unfitting seeing as how this is somewhat turning out to be more about Sonic with all the levels focusing on him instead of Chip... soo... yeah - i think this one's more fitting.

i don't really like this chapter, but we need it for the story to progress. we're taking a small break from the levels and focusing more on the cutscenes (which are slightly altered, i should mention)

enjoy~

* * *

Chapter 4 – The Legend of Dark Gaia

It was a rather quiet plane ride over to Spagonia. A small bit of conversation started between Sonic and Tails, Sonic bringing out all the facts about the journey so far and his werehog transformation, while Tails informed him about what he had been up to lately and everything he needed to know about the professor. Though, the conversation died out about halfway to Spagonia. Sonic was tempted to fall asleep, as he had been awake for the past three days, but stayed up just in case anything happened. Chip seemed a little tired, but he stayed up as well, clinging onto a nearby bar on the wing of the plane.

It didn't take them all that long to reach Spagonia. Somewhere along the line, the sun rose again and Sonic turned back into his original form, somewhat startling Tails. They landed in Spagonia sometime in the afternoon, everybody in the city out and about. The three didn't pay any attention to the townspeople though, as they only came to see the professor. Tails seemed to know the city like the back of his hand, and led the way to the university. Outside, sitting or standing around the fountain, were a bunch of students looking distraught and conversing with each other about someone missing. Tails listened to a little bit of it as he walked by, but Sonic and Chip just shrugged it off as if it were nothing. The three walked past all the students and into the university. Tails led them into the laboratory, where they were greeted by the professor's rushed assistant running around the place, papers flying in all directions as he passed. Everything in the room seemed to be dissembled and out of place, tons of things on the floor, as if someone or something had ambushed the place – or maybe it was just the assistant racing around. Tails decided to speak out first.

"Uh... Excuse me?" he started, stopping the man in his tracks. He turned to him and place the stack of paper he was carrying onto the desk beside him. "Where's the professor?"

The assistant, whose name none of the three had truly learned, sighed and looked at them with a somewhat worried look.

"...He's gone," he answered. Tails looked at him questionably.

"Wha... whadaya mean?"

"He was taken away."

Tails' eye's widened with shock when he realized what he meant. "Y-you mean he's been... kidnapped?"

Both Sonic and Chip's eyes went wide with shock. The professor's assistant nodded.

"It was a little bit before the tremors hit," he explained, recalling the incident. "This old man showed up – with a..." he gestured a large stomach, "and a..." he then gestured a long mustache, "and a whole pack of robots! They carried the professor off – lab data and all!" Tails nearly fell over with disappointment.

"It can't be..." he sighed, his eyelids drooping. Sonic finally decided to speak up.

"That sure sounds like Eggman," he said, putting his insights on the situation.

"That's such a horrible thing to do!" Chip finally piped out after staying silent for quite some time. "We gotta help that guy out, and _fast_!"

Sonic nodded, then turned to Tails. "Alright then. Let's go and find the professor!"

Tails sighed, still a bit disappointed about the professor, and led them back out into the town. The fox went on ahead of Sonic and Chip to the exit of the city, telling them he needed to prep up his plane before they left, leaving the two to ask around if anybody knew anything about where Eggman might've taken the professor. The two split up, Sonic talking to the students at the university, Chip asking around the actual town. None of the students seemed to know anything about where they would go, or even anything about a kidnapping – they all just assumed the professor was in too deep with his work, or was on vacation or something. He moved down into the town where he found a middle-aged woman standing outside a jewelry store. Sighing, he walked over to her and started asking her about the incident.

"Excuse me?" Sonic started. "Do you happen to know anything about Professor Pickle's kidnapping?"

The woman looked at him, and considered her answer.

"I don't really know anything _about _it, but I overheard someone say something about going to Mazuri," she answered. Sonic thought for a moment, then realized where they needed to go.

"Mazuri, huh? Ok, thanks for your help!" he called out before running off. He ran over to Chip, who was currently talking to a young girl with reddish-orange hair no older than eight or so. The fairy turned to him, his eyes seeming to light up.

"Sonic! We gotta go to-"

"-Mazuri, I know," Sonic interrupted him. Grabbing his wrist, he yanked the fairy away from the girl and ran to the exit. Tails was there, like he said he would be, warming up the Tornado. "Tails, hop in," Sonic said while jumping into the back seat. "We're going to Mazuri!" Giving a small nod, Tails swung himself into the pilot's seat and started the plane. They flew out, leaving the city of Spagonia behind.

* * *

The three arrived in Mazuri at nighttime, Sonic's werehog transformation startling Tails even more than the first time. The village wasn't all that big, smaller than both Apotos and Spagonia, and was surrounded by small huts. It seemed unusually quiet, and none of them saw anybody around. They all checked around the village, in the shop, in front and back of the tall and thick trees – nobody seemed to be around. The three all met up at the center of the village, each with a questioned look on their face.

"Nobody's around – what gives?" Chip questioned, glancing around again. Sonic shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe they're all out hunting?" he guessed. Tails shook his head.

"No – not this late at night," he acknowledged. He walked away from from the two, then stopped, looking around. "It doesn't make any sense – if Eggman came here, the people should be swarming the place – but nobody's here..."

Sonic walked up next to the fox, looking out into the distance. "Or maybe... they're all hiding from him."

Tails considered the idea. "That... that could be possible... but wouldn't Eggman and his robots be somewhere around?"

"They would be... normally... you think that there may be a hideout somewhere?"

"Well, maybe.. but..." Tails considered. He glanced around again, trying to piece together everything, but with no avail.

"Hey guys!" they heard Chip call out from a distance. "What's this weird hole?"

The two ran over to where the fairy was and looked over past him. Sure enough, there was a large hole leading underground – an obvious pathway to some kind of hideout.

"How'd we miss that?" Tails asked himself, then shook his head. "Doesn't matter – it's probably gonna lead to either Eggman's base or a hideout for the people here."

"Well, we'll just have to take our chances if we're gonna find that professor guy," Sonic acknowledged, stepping in. "Let's go!" The other two walked in after him, following him into the hole. It was extremely dark inside, the only light coming from Chip's necklace and the moonlight outside. Though, the farther they went, the moonlight didn't reach them, making it even more difficult to see. Sonic and Tails stayed close to Chip, who's necklace was currently their only light source, but still occasionally tripped over things and ran into walls. Finally, Tails just shook his head and stopped.

"We're not getting anywhere here," he acknowledged. "The path's probably really long, but without light, we're not gonna make it anywhere." Sonic gave a small nod.

"Whadaya think we should do?"

"Well... I got an idea," Tails answered, walking over to Chip. Glancing at his glowing necklace, he placed a gloved hand on it and snapped it right off his neck. He examined it, but soon stopped when he heard the fairy start yelling at him.

"H-hey! Give it back!" Chip shouted, attempting to snatch it back. Tails slowly backed away with a questioned look on his face. Sonic immediately realized what was happening and quickly took action. He grabbed Chip and pulled him away from Tails, attempting to calm him down.

"Simmer down, Chip! He'll give it back!" He acknowledged, Chip still squirming in his grasp. Sonic tightened his grip around the fairy until he gave up trying to move, then loosened it. He turned his attention to Tails, who had temporarily dropped his questioned expression and was currently trying to fit the green gem into a small branch, tying one of the strings around it. "So what's the big idea you have?"

Tails quickly ran out of the hole and returned with some kind of creamy-white, paper-like object, wrapping it around the branch and tying the other side of the string around it. He held it out and shone it around the tunnel, smiling to himself.

"Perfect! We got ourselves our own flashlight," he exclaimed, shining it ahead. Sonic examined it, then gave a nod.

"Nice," he concurred. He let go of Chip, who seemed to have calmed down a bit. The fairy flew in front of Tails, glancing right into his eyes.

"Can I at least hold onto it?" he asked with a low voice, looking down at the homemade flashlight. Tails nodded, then handed it to him.

"Y-yeah... sorry for taking it." Chip took hold of the flashlight, and flew ahead, leading the way through the tunnel. Sonic and Tails followed behind, the werehog explaining to Tails the situation that had happened at the beginning of their journey and apologizing for the sudden outburst. Tails understood, and the conversation stopped quickly after. Light seemed to shine out ahead, and none of them were entirely sure whether it was from the base ahead or just the flashlight. The light eventually got brighter, and they were almost sure it was the base. The three ran towards it, and automatic machine doors opened as they stepped in front of it.

Inside was a large, yellow-orange colored room with rather bright lighting (or at least it felt like it because the three had been in the dark for so long). But what really stood out was the dome-shaped cell at the top of the room with a man in a light brown suit with light gray hair and bushy eyebrows of the same color covering his eyes. Tails immediately recognized him, while Sonic and Chip just kinda stood there trying to figure out who that was.

"Professor Pickle!" Tails exclaimed, flying up to the cell. Chip eventually joined him up in the air, leaving Sonic all alone on the ground. "We got here as fast as we could!" The professor glanced at the sandwich he was holding, then turned his attention to the fox.

"Ah – Tails! What brings you here? The menu is hardly worth the trip if you ask me," he informed, apparently completely forgetting the fact that he was being held captive by Dr. Eggman. He tossed his sandwich back on the table with a look of disgust. "That is possibly the absolute **worst** cucumber sandwich I've ever tasted!"

Tails shook his head. "We didn't come here to eat, Professor," he stated, flying to the other side of the cell. "We came here to rescue you!" He placed his hands on a big green button and pushed it. The glass on the dell disappeared, and the floor dropped slowly down to the ground. The professor stood up.

"Oh I see – how rude of me!" a small flight of stairs dropped from the bottom part of the dome to the ground. The professor walked down them and started pacing past Tails. "Right then – its time someone taught the chef here how to make a proper sandwich!" Tails jumped in front of him, stopping the man in his tracks.

"You can file a complaint later, Professor!" he exclaimed.

"Let's get out of here before Eggman's welcoming committee shows up," Sonic finally spoke out, after being silent for quite a while. The professor nodded, then turned to the giant vault across the room.

"Oh yes, quite. But let us collect the contents of that vault before departing." Sonic glanced over to where the professor was pointing. He took a step back like a baseball pitcher would, then outstretched his arm until his fist met the golden metal door. The door disessembled and fell to the ground. Tails quickly flew over the wreck and into the vault, returning with a well preserved scroll in his hands. He held it out in front of the professor, who just nodded greatfully. "Thank you. Those documents are our only hope for surviving this crisis. Let's go – we have no time to lose. I'm half starved after being fed nothing but those terrible sandwiches!"

As the professor walked ahead to the exit, Chip flew right next to him, pulling a bar of chocolate out. "Want some chocolate, Professor?" he asked, holding out the candy bar out in front of him. The professor gave him a surprised glance, then took the chocolate into his hands.

"My, my – don't mind if I do."

…

After the plane ride, which was somewhat hard to manage as both Sonic and Chip had to ride on the wings of the plane because it had become so cramped, the four returned to Spagonia. The whole town was in an uproar when they saw the professor had returned, and greeted him with lots of questions regarding where he had been or how being captured by Dr. Eggman had been. He ignored most of the questions thrown at him, stating that he'd answer them all at a better time. The professor led the other three into the lab, relieving his assistant of his duties, and started explaining the scroll to the three.

"These documents are known as the Gaia Manuscripts. They tell of an ancient disaster that befell our planet tens of thousands of years ago," he explained.

"A disaster?" Tails questioned, curiousness fulfilling his eyes.

"Yes, quite. Apparently, this isn't the first time the planet's been split apart." Both Sonic and Tails exchanged surprised gasps. The professor took a sip of his tea. "The cause lies at the very core of the planet. All the phenonmena we've witnessed are the direct result of one creature – the hyper-energy organism spawned at the planet's core, Dark Gaia." Chip's attention perked up a bit, but quickly went back down as he poured himself another cup of tea.

"So how do we stop this Dark Gaia and put the world back together again?" Tails asked. Pickle turned to him.

"Luckily, Dark Gaia has yet to be fully reborn – we most likely have Dr. Eggman's premature wake up call to thank for that. If we act now, we may be able to restore the planet," he continued, "by restoring power to the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic pulled one out of the emeralds.

"Sonic, you must travel to each of the Gaia temples listed in the manuscripts. The planet's power will restore power to the Chaos Emeralds, and in turn, the emeralds will restore the planet back to its original state, and help it heal naturally."

Sonic nodded, and began to imagine what kind of adventure lie ahead of him. A dark force rising up from the core of the earth, a worldwide trip, a new friend to share the adventure with, and a ticket to pain and suffering if he didn't succeed -

That sounded like his kind of thing.

* * *

told you it wasn't the greatest thing in the world. ah well - i'm already working on chapter 5, so expect it up sometime in February.

please review~


	5. And So They Battled Once Again

Chapter 5 – And so They Battled Once Again

Robots came from every direction, surrounding the villagers of Mazuri. They all looked around, frightened, unsure of what was going on. One of the villagers, a young man about in his late teens, turned to the head and commander of the ambush. A fat, egg-shaped man with a very distinctive mustache riding in a half-sphere shaped vehicle levitating in the air, and a small sphere robot sitting by his side. Out from all the worried murmuring, the teen spoke up.

"Who are you?" he questioned, pointing up at the leader. The man ignored his question, and started explaining the situation very briefly.

"Fear not, my good villagers," he stated, slightly standing up from his vehicle. "If you all cooperate, I won't have to do anything nasty. All you have to do is tell me where the temple of Gaia is."

One kid, no older than about thirteen or so, picked up a decent sized rock from the ground and glared at the man. "We're not telling you anything!" he shouted before tossing the rock at him. The kid must've had a really great aim, as the rock hit the man square in the face. He fell over back into his seat, and the small sphere robot started pointing and laughing at him. The man placed a large gloved hand on the robot's head and shoved him back into his sphere, glaring daggers at the villagers.

"So, you dare to defy me, do you?" he questioned, signaling the larger robots on the ground to corner them all. But before they could start moving, a blue figure homed in on all of them, knocking each of them to the ground as it homing-attacked them all. The figure sprung himself into the air, revealing his true identity. "Whu- Sonic!"

Sonic landed on the reddish-brown soil below, followed by Chip, and stood up, glancing at the man.

"Yo Eggman – thanks for that little skydiving trip the other day," he stated, pointing right at him.

"I should've known you'd still be alive, you stubborn little hedgehog!" Eggman growled. Sonic shook his head – if Shadow the Hedgehog could survive a fall like that, then Sonic the hedgehog sure as hell could, too.

"What're you doing out here?" the hedgehog questioned, folding his arms up against his chest.

"I see no reason to tell you." Of course – why had Sonic even bothered asking? "If anything, I'm busy. Farewell!"

Eggman and the small robot flew off in the eggmobile, leaving everyone else behind. Chip flew up from his spot on the ground, stopping where Eggman had used to be. "Whu- hey! That's cheating! Come baaack!" he shouted out to him. Sonic shook his head.

"Forget it Chip – he's gone," he stated, turning to the villagers. "Is everyone alright? I was wondering what happened to you guys."

The villagers all answered him with yes and other terms to that extent. One man who looked like he would be second in rank of the village pushed through the crowd and stood before the hedgehog.

"You saved our village, hedgehog," he stated. "How can we thank you?"

Sonic shook his head. "Don't thank me yet – I'm not finished with him."

Another villager, easily the oldest in the village, walked up next to the man. "Perhaps you are the chosen ones," he started. "Lend me the tablet fragments you have."

Sonic looked at him with a shocked expression. "How'd you know I had tablets?"

"I have my ways." Questionably, Sonic handed over the tablet fragments to the elder, who took them in his hands and started toying with them. Eventually, he managed to put the two together so that it became one whole tablet, much like the sun and moon tablets they had acquired before. "It is done. Go – place the tablet into the door and find that fiend before he reaches the temple."

Giving a small smirk to himself, he nodded and called Chip over. The elder, Gwek, directed the two to the shrine, where they quickly raced into to put the missing piece into the door. In the shrine, there was only one door, unlike Apotos, and it was of a glowing yellow star, and not a moon or a sun. Sonic, who had unwillingly turned back into the werehog the moment he stepped into the shrine, shrugged and signaled Chip to fill in the missing piece of the door. He flew up to the imprinted hole in the door and placed the planet tablet (what Sonic had decided to call it) into it. The star in the middle shined brightly, lighting up the entire room, then the door rose off the ground. Giving a small smirk, Sonic walked through the dark hallway and into the new stage.

* * *

Sonic zipped through the savannah, catching up quickly to Eggman. Up some conveniently placed runways and across some rather large tree trunks, the hedgehog caught up to him, running right beside his large machine.

"Eggman!" he shouted, not stopping his speed. The doctor turned to him with a surprised look on his face.

"Hmm? How'd you get here so quickly?" Sonic ignored the stupid question. "No matter – your road ends here. Behold, my new power!" Eggman announced, flying his eggmobile into the machine that strangely resembled a beetle. "Egg Beetle – go!"

Sonic stopped in his tracks, rolling his eyes at the predictable name, and stretched out his legs. Chip, who had flown behind him the whole time, finally caught up to the two, and stopped right next to him. Sonic gave a smirk, tapped the tip of his foot on the floorboard, and got down in a running position. "Alright then, Eggman – bring it on!"

The Egg Beetle took flight and quickly flew backwards, its huge mechanical jaws facing the hedgehog. Sonic took after him, Chip following close behind. "Alright, you unsuspecting little hedgehog," Eggman growled out. "My Egg Beetle's claws will tear you to shreds!"

"Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we?"

Large flames dispersed from small rockets across the runway, spewing out right in front of Sonic. "Are you fast enough to dodge _this_?" Sonic quickly dodged them by quick-stepping to the left and to the right. Smirking to himself, he continued to chase after the machine, dodging the random flames as he went. Just then, though, Eggman stopped the flame spews and started dropping black bombs with large red X's imprinted on them. Sonic stopped his over-confidence and quickly avoided them, almost tripping over himself as he did. He avoided them at all costs until he reached the Egg Beetle, its big jaws widening up. Without thinking, Sonic quickly homing attacked the center, sending the machine flying.

"Ok, now I get your pattern," Sonic mumbled to himself. He quickly caught up with Eggman, and was greeted by some more rockets blocking his way. Sonic dodged the flames, but soon slowed his pace when he saw the Egg Beetle completely stopped, its jaws glowing a bright orange color. He quickly rolled out of the way, moving to the side of it. It did the trick, but Eggman's machine flew right back in front of him, blocking his way of the free road. The Egg Beetle's jaws opened up again, and Sonic took the chance to homing attack it and knock it down.

"Boy Eggman, I sure hope that's not all you have, 'cause this is gonna be a pretty pathetic fight!" Sonic shouted out, sarcasm hanging off his every word.

Eggman growled. "It's not over just yet, Sonic!" he called back with an evil smirk. Just then, the Egg Beetle moved over to Sonic's left side as the hedgehog ran over a bridge. "Are you fast enough to dodge this?" he shouted, repeating the same question he asked before. Two large lasers spewed out from under the bridge, moving quickly towards Sonic. The two split away from each other, and the hedgehog slowed his speed to run behind them. The same thing happened again, only this time they were coming from the front instead of the back. Sonic quickly sped up and boosted himself ahead, leaving both Chip and the lasers in the dust. The Egg Beetle stopped its lasers and quickly caught up to the hedgehog, flying in front of him once again. It opened up its jaws again, and before Eggman could have the chance to snap Sonic into pieces with them, the hedgehog boosted right into it, sending the machine flying. As Sonic passed by it, it exploded, Eggman's "brilliant" work ruined.

"Ha! Same as ever – all bark and no bite!" Sonic called out to Eggman as he ran passed him. He continued up the path until he passed by a large temple-like building with lots of colored tapestries streaming off it. He stopped his run to get a better look at it, while Chip finally caught up to him. "Is _that_ the Temple of Gaia?" Sonic questioned, not even attempting to avert his gaze away from the temple. Chip shrugged.

"I dunno – wanna check it out?" he asked. Sonic gave a small nod, then hopped down to it with the fairy flying right behind him.

…

"Woah..." Was Sonic's only word as he walked through the temple. Chip was, too, in awe, but was too baffled to say anything. The place looked like no one had entered the place in a million plus years, though no cobwebs or anything like that had infested the place. It was made of complete rock and stone, like the shrines in Apotos and Mazuri. Green flames topped the side alters, lighting the place up. Up ahead was a circle-shaped alter with a small column in the middle.

"Hey Sonic! There's something weird here, right in the middle!" Chip acknowledged, flying ahead over to it. He landed on the edge, then bent over to look into it. "Hey – what's this hole?" Curious, he reached his tiny hand into it, unaware of Sonic's sudden warning.

"Wait – there could be some kind of-"

Receiving the message a little too late, Chip touched the center of the alter, his green gem necklace suddenly glowing brightly – brighter than it usually did. The temple shook violently, knocking Chip to the ground and almost sending Sonic right off his feet. Chip quickly got up and scampered behind the hedgehog, screaming as he went. He clutched onto Sonic's back, waiting for the shaking to stop. It eventually slowed to a stop, and Sonic released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He walked forward to the alter, which's center had suddenly raised up high, and examined it.

"Hmn? What's that?" Chip questioned. No actual reply came from Sonic, but the hedgehog brought out one of the emeralds from behind his back and placed it into the hole in the alter. It took a couple seconds, but the emerald suddenly shined a bright green, then raised off the alter. The two gasped as the emerald emitted a thin ray of light in all directions. "Woah! The emerald came back to life!"

"This was the temple of Gaia," Sonic pondered aloud. "That's gotta be why Eggman's so keen on taking the place over!"

Suddenly, the temple shook violently again, some of the aged rocks falling from their places. Sonic quickly grabbed onto the alter while letting out a yelp of surprise, and Chip just clutched onto his arm, burying his face into the hedgehog's chest in fear. This earthquake seemed to last a lot longer than the first, and shook more violently. Both anxiously waited for the shaking to stop, hanging onto each other so they wouldn't fall over.

The shaking eventually stopped – well, not completely, but enough for the two to be able to walk straight again. Sonic started running out of the temple, Chip slowly following behind. About halfway through, though, he could hear the all too familiar voice of Tails calling out to him.

"Sonic! Good news!" he shouted out, running right up to him. Sonic skidded to a stop, Chip almost bumping into him. "The planet! One of the broken pieces is moving back into place!" Tails set his screen thing in front of them and played a recording of one of the broken pieces of the world slowly moving back into place. Sonic wasn't very sure where Tails had gotten the footage, but didn't question. All three exchanged surprised and amazed glances. Tails eventually shut the thing off, and turned to Sonic.

"At this rate, you'll have the planet back together in no time!" he stated, amazement clear in his voice. Sonic put a hand on his hip.

"A planet-sized jigsaw puzzle?" he mused to himself. He then gave a smile. "Sounds like a great excuse to see the world!"

* * *

The three got back to the main village around sunset. On the way, Sonic filled Tails in on everything that had just happened – Eggman's ambush on the village, the fight with the Egg Beetle, the temple, even about that one kid in the village that threw a rock at Eggman's face. As they arrived back at the village, they were greeted by a swarm of people surrounding them, thanking and congratulating them. Tails got up and announced that the continent of Apotos and Mazuri was completely restored, which earned even a bigger and louder uproar than before.

"You three are truly heroes," the second-in-command of the village, Kwami, spoke. Tails smiled and looked down at his feet, blushing.

"Actually, it's mostly Sonic who's doing everything – we're just kinda tagging along," he admitted.

"Hey! It's not _just_ me - you guys do a lot too!" Sonic replied. He pulled both Tails and Chip into a loose headlock with his now stretchy arms, then released them with a smirk on his face.

"Well, we'll have plenty of time to converse about who's doing what in a while," Kwami broke in.

"But for now, a situation like this calls for a celebration!" Gwek, who had appeared just a second ago right next to Kwami, called out. The sudden outburst earned a surprised gasp from Sonic.

"Ok, now I know that's I'm saving the world and all, but I don't think it's really necessary for a celebration," he said, shaking his head.

"Nonsense! With you three bringing peace to the world and ruining that Eggman's plans one step at a time, it's the perfect reason to celebrate!" Gwek explained, turning away. "Ana! Yawa! Bring the supplies!" he shouted out to two of the other villagers. They both nodded, then scurried off into the darkness. Sonic was about to interrupt him, but he had already walked off. He turned to his two friends.

"Do you really think we need a party?" he questioned.

"Well, you do kinda look like you could use a little relaxation," Tails inferred, shrugging.

"I dunno... It just seems a little unnecessary."

"Come on, Sonic! It's a party! You can't say no to that!" Chip finally shouted out, flying ahead of him. Shrugging to himself, Sonic followed, Tails leading behind.

The villagers whom the three had followed led them to a bright-lighted place somewhere not too deep in the forest. In it was an amateurishly made but rather long table in the middle, lighted by small fires in the middle of it. Some of the villagers were already sat at the table, while others were still out and about, scurrying around the place. Sonic and the others took a seat at the table, looking around the place. Gwek put in a few words of wisdom before the feast actually started, explaining what the three had done that day, and what they had planned to do ("We're not gonna have to go through this _every time_ we restore a continent, are we?" Sonic questioned silently to Tails, who just shrugged and listened on). Gwek finished his little speech, then left the other villagers to bring out the meals. Some of the villagers came from behind them with plates of food, setting them down in front of them. The food didn't look _extremely_ appetizing (Sonic would gladly choose a chili dog over it any day), but overall looked good enough for a small party.

Until they brought out the beverage.

One of the village girls, Ana, came from behind the three and poured a reddish-brown liquid that looked like it had been aged for quite a while into a carved out cup to the left of each. Sonic picked up the cup and took a sip of it, swallowing some of the sweet but strong fluid.

"This tastes oddly like alcohol," he thought aloud. Ana looked at him while pouring Tails a cup.

"It is," she replied. "But it's a special type – one that we only drink on very special occasions."

Sonic shook his head. "I don't think me saving a piece of the planet's that huge of an occasion," he murmured. Ana shrugged.

"Well apparently the Elder thinks it is," she stated, walking away from the three. Sonic shrugged to himself and took another small sip.

"This stuff is good."

The werehog turned to Chip, who was happily sipping his drink. He looked at him questionably.

"You sure you should be drinking that?" he questioned.

"Why?"

"Well, um... h-how old are you?" Sonic didn't really know how to explain the issue to him.

"I dunno."

Of course – Sonic completely forgot about his friend's amnesia. Chip took another big sip of the alcohol, completely oblivious to Sonic's worry. The night was full of chatter, eating and drinking, but it was actually quite relaxing – well, at least compared to some of the previous nights, it was. Ana usually came by with refills of the alcohol, pouring some more into the cups of the people who wanted more. Sonic only took about two or three cups, but usually just payed attention to his meal, which was surprisingly pretty tasty – well, except for the baobab fruit. Tails only took one cup, and declined every offer for more directed to him. Though Chip – Chip was a completely different story. Every time Ana came around with a jar of the alcohol, he always called out to her for some more. At least six cups he must've drank, and he was currently on his seventh. In fact, he accepted more of the alcohol than he did the actual food! Sonic eventually noticed Chip's voice slowly starting to slur every time he finished a glass and asked for another.

Ana came over again with another fill, and asked if any of them wanted more. Chip was about to answer, but Sonic placed his hand over his mouth and answered for him.

"No – I... I think we've had enough," he answered. Ana nodded to them, and walked over to the other villagers. Sonic removed his hand from Chip's mouth, who didn't really notice the refusal put in for him. The werehog turned over to Tails, who was cleaning up the mess in front of him. "_Please_ tell me we're not gonna have to go through this every time we restore a continent."

"I dunno. We shouldn't," Tails replied, getting up from his seat.

"I mean – don't get me wrong, parties are fun and all – it's just that..." Sonic stopped his sentence when he learned that nobody was listening. "Tails?" He looked around, and spotted Tails walking away from the table, plate and cup in hand. "Oh yeah, thanks, Tails. _Real_ supportive," Sonic mumbled to himself.

"Hey Sonic? I... I'm not feeling too good," Came Chip's slurred voice. Sonic turned to him with a hint of worry suppressed in his face. Chip definitely didn't look very good, nor did he sound too well, either. The fairy looked up to him, he caramel eyes now completely bloodshot. "Woah... S-Sonic... did you double? I'm se-seeing two of you!" Sonic's hint of worry came back as a slap in the face. He noted the dizziness that came over the fairy as he put his tiny hands to his head. Chip groaned softly and clenched his eyes shut, holding onto the table for support. Sonic was about to place a hand on him to keep him standing straight, but before he could, Chip reached over his seat and puked right onto the soil below. Another wave of dizziness overcame him, and he fell over on the bench-like seat, not moving again.

"...Chip?" Sonic stood up and examined the fairy, who hadn't replied. Chip was definitely unconscious, lying on the bench seat, not making a sound. Sonic scooped him up in his arms, and walked away from the bench. He stopped for a second, and wiped some remnants of puke off Chip's lip with his thumb, careful not to cut him with his claw. Sonic sighed, shaking his head.

"Oh boy – what am I gonna do with you?"

* * *

admittedly, yes, i had a lot of fun writing that last part. yeah, i had that idea stuck in my mind for quite a while now, so it's nice to finally write that out and relieve myself of having to keep that stored in my mind forever.

yeah, i don't really have anything to say.

please review


	6. Friendly Fire

Chapter 6 – Friendly Fire

The area was quite dark, but a ray of sunshine shone brightly through the room, lighting it up. Chip slowly opened his eyes, but quickly shut them back as the sun blinded him. He opened his eyes again and raised a hand in front of them, attempting to block out the sun. Slowly sitting up, he groggily put his hand to his head in pain. His head was throbbing madly, and it hurt even more when he stared into the light. He sighed and shook his head, and placed his other hand on his chest as he leaned back, lying back down. But he suddenly shot right back up when he felt nothing but a patch of fur.

Chip looked down at his chest, but saw no green gem lying there. He looked around frantically, worry clear in his eyes. When he saw nothing around him, Chip shot up from the bed and ran quickly outside. Once out, the sun's bright rays nearly blinded him, and gave him an even bigger headache. Shading his eyes and putting his other hand to his head in pain, he looked around desperately for Sonic. He eventually spotted the blue hedgehog to his left, and quickly ran over to him, calling out his name. "S-Sonic!"

Sonic turned to him, a small smile spreading on his face. "Oh hey, Chip – how are you fee-"

"Sonic! My necklace! I can't find it!" Chip interrupted him. Sonic's smile dimmed a little, but was still there, and even grew bigger when he pulled out a shining green gem from behind his back. He held it out to the fairy, who seemed to calm down at the sight of it.

"Calm down, buddy – it's right here," Chip took the gem from his hand and held it close to him, his paws clutched tightly around it. "You kinda threw up on it last night, so I thought I'd clean it for you," Sonic explained. Chip nodded silently, not saying a word. "Now – how are you feeling?"

Chip put a hand to his head and clutched it in pain, the sudden adrenaline rush making the throbbing worse. "...Not good.. I have a _huge_ headache," he answered, nearly clenching his eyes shut. Sonic knelt down to Chip's level and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I had a feeling that was gonna happen," he inferred, looking away for a second.

"...What can I do about it?" Chip questioned, almost falling back.

"Well, there's two things that can help," Sonic explained. "I've heard that drinking more alcohol will help, but I'm pretty sure you won't wanna do that." Chip shook his head, then looked back up at the hedgehog.

"What's the other thing?"

Chip spent the rest of the morning nearly puking his guts out in a bush. The fairy wiped his mouth off, then looked back at Sonic.

"You feeling any better?" he asked. Chip shook his head.

"Not really..." he answered, an obvious strain in his voice.

"Oh well," Sonic mumbled. "We'll get you some pain killers when we get back to Spagonia, ok?" Chip nodded, then stuck his finger into the back of his throat and continued to throw up his stomach contents into the bush in front of him. About fifteen more minutes of the seemingly torture, then Chip finally decided to give up and live with the hangover that he had obtained. Eventually, Sonic got each of them some food for the road. They all said their goodbyes to each of the villagers that they came in contact with (and Sonic couldn't help but congratulate Kwod, the boy who had hit Eggman square in the face with a rock) and got on board the Tornado. They eventually flew out, leaving the village of Mazuri.

* * *

It was nighttime in Spagonia, but it sure didn't feel like it to any one of them. Though the plane ride wasn't very long, Tails eventually got pretty hungry, and decided to go ahead to the store, Josef's, to get some food, saying he'd meet the others at Pickle's lab. Throughout both the flight and the walk through the town, Sonic occasionally asked Chip how he was feeling, and if his headache had lessened at all. The fairy still had a large headache, but it had reduced greatly since they left Mazuri. The two walked down the street, on their way to get new information from the professor, but were suddenly stopped when they heard the all too familiar, high pitched, feminine voice call out to Sonic.

"Found you, Sonic!" The werehog cringed a little as he was suddenly glomped by his pink, overly-optimistic, stalker-like lover.

Amy.

Sonic grunted as he attempted to pull away from her, but with no avail. "Oh Sonic – I've been looking for you _forever_!"

"H-hey! Lemme go!" Sonic grunted out, still trying to pull away. Chip looked at the two with a questioned look in his eyes. Amy giggled lightly.

"You're crazy if you think you can get away from Amy Rose, and... um..." Amy finally took the chance to open her eyes and see whom she was hugging. Finally realizing what she had done, she let go of him. "Who're you?"

Realization set in – for both Sonic and Amy. "Oh my gosh – I am _so_ sorry!" Amy apologized, pushing the werehog away. Sonic stumbled back with a worried look. "I just completely mistook you for someone else!" Amy turned around, thinking aloud. "That is so strange – I could've sworn it was him!"

Sonic wanted to tell her that he _was_ actually Sonic, but no words could come out of his mouth – that, and Amy kept interrupting him. "Anyway, I'm _really_ sorry!" Amy said to him, turning back. "See you later!"

With that, Amy seemingly pranced away happily down the street without a care in the world, or an idea of what state she had just put her "boyfriend" into.

"W-wait! Amy! Come back! It _is_ me! Sonic!" Sonic shouted out to her a little too late. She was well out of sight by now, and well out of earshot as well. Sonic fell to his knees as if the world just crumbled right before him. He looked ahead, tears nearly forming in his eyes. Breathing heavily, he reached out a clawed hand, as if to bring her back by some unknown force. "Wait..."

Realization sunk in. Amy didn't recognize him. Normally, that wouldn't have bothered him, seeing as how she was apparently color blind, and mistook both Shadow _and_ Silver, and maybe at one point Metal Sonic, for him. But now – now the last of his self esteem was shattered.

Amy.

His self-proclaimed stalker girlfriend.

Didn't recognize him.

It suddenly felt like Sonic's heart had shattered into a million pieces. The whole werehog ordeal was keeping him away from his friends. Nobody recognized him anymore. He was just some big scary monster to them now.

"Well... that was weird," Chip's voice suddenly broke Sonic out of his thoughts. "How come that girl didn't know you were you, Sonic?" Sonic didn't answer – he was too distraught to answer. "Well, I guess you are kinda.. different, and... and well... scarier." That line slapped Sonic right in the face. He looked at the fairy hurtfully, then rolled his eyes and got up off the ground, a small but noticeable growl escaping his throat. He walked away, not saying a word. Chip suddenly realized what he had just done, and flew right behind him, a frantic and worried look in his eyes.

"Uh – I'm sorry, Sonic! I didn't mean it like that!" he yelled frantically at him. "You only _look_ really scary! Inside, you're the same as ever! Sonic!"

The werehog never gave so much as a sideways glance towards him, and continued furiously down the street. Chip fell to the ground in hurt, his eyes wide with worry and sadness. Breathing in heavily, he walked slowly after him, eventually catching up.

"Sonic – are you ok? I – I'm sorry – I didn't mean... to make you mad..." Chip confessed.

"...Don't worry about it," Sonic growled out, not looking at him. Chip wasn't sure whether to take that as forgiveness or just an excuse to not talk to him. Eventually, the two walked over down the alley way that led to the professor's lab, but were interrupted by his assistant huffing and puffing. He looked horrible for some reason – dark circles under his eyes, breathing heavily, an angry expression on his face. Chip flew up to him.

"Hey – are you-"

"Grrgh... You got a problem?" the assistant interrupted the fairy's question. He gasped and panted, awaiting Chip's answer.

"Well – no – it's just that – you seem kinda... different than you were this afternoon..." Chip meeped out, frightened.

"I'm different? Hey kid – I don't even know you!" the assistant yelled back.

"Y-yeah you do... we met a couple... days ago-"

"You're getting on my nerves! Get lost, punk!" Getting a little too close, the assistant swatted a hand at Chip, sending him straight to the ground with a yelp. The fairy got up and scampered behind Sonic, clutching to his leg, frightened greatly.

"Hey! That's _my _friend you're hitting, punk!" Sonic shouted at him, rage filling his voice. It didn't really seem to effect the man, but Sonic was far from giving up. Unfortunately for him, Chip tugged at his leg worriedly.

"S-Sonic... l-let's just go," he requested, trying to avoid a fight. Sonic growled at the assistant, but soon backed down.

"You're lucky I have work to do," he growled out, turning away from him. The two walked past him, and onto the professor's lab. Though, Sonic stopped and looked at Chip, putting a hand to the fairy's tiny chin and examined what the man had done to him. His right cheek was red, and Chip winced as he put a finger to it.

"I-I'm fine, Sonic. Let's go," he stated, looking to the floor, attempting to avoid eye contact with Sonic's rage-filled green orbs. Sonic growled again, then continued up the stairs to the laboratory, where they were greeted by a somewhat cheerful professor.

"Ah! Welcome back, Sonic! Tails already filled me in on your adventures," he greeted with a sickeningly happy voice. Sonic glanced at Tails in the corner, who waved nervously – apparently, he noticed that Sonic wasn't really in the best of moods.

"That's nice – someone oughta put a bullet in your assistant, though," he growled out.

"You saw my assistant?"

"Yeah – he attacked Chip."

Chip put a hand to his red cheek and winced a little, but otherwise shrugged it off. This seemed to intrigue the professor.

"So he was acting strange?" he questioned. Sonic nodded. "Hmm... I see... Clearly, he too has fallen prey to Dark Gaia's influence. I suspected something like that might've happened to him."

"Whadaya mean?" Chip asked, curious.

"According to the Gaia Manuscripts, Dark Gaia is empowered at night. It negatively impacts the deepest, darkest parts of the heart."

"So that's why he was acting weird?"

"Yes. And I must do something to assist him before anything else like this happens in the future," he inferred. "Anywho, the data indicates several entrances to the holy temple. I just need a little more time to complete my research, so please make a habit of stopping by regularly to see me. So far, I have uncovered two temples – one here in Spagonia, the other in Holoska."

Sonic nodded, then walked out without saying a word to any of them, Chip unsurely following. The two walked out of the laboratory and back into the town, where Sonic unexpectedly took a turn back into the alley instead of over to the actual town.

"S-Sonic? The town's that way," Chip informed, pointing to the city. Sonic payed little to no attention to him, and continued to the alleyway until he reached the crazed assistant. Walking right up to him, he grabbed the man by his shirt and glared daggers at him.

"Dark Gaia possessed or not, I'll knock some sense into you myself!" Sonic shouted right into his face. Chip suddenly realized what he was gonna do to him and quickly flew over to him. "You better think twice before hurting somebody, especially when it happens to be _my_ friend!" Chip latched onto Sonic's arm, attempting weakly to pull him away.

"Sonic, stop! I said I was fine!" he shouted out, but was suddenly thrown back when Sonic shoved the man right into the wall. The werehog was definitely pissed right out of his mind, and Chip honestly didn't know what to do to help him.

"I am about _this_ close to just slashing you into pieces," Sonic bared his sharp fangs, looking much more like a monster than he did before.

"Sonic! He's just possessed! He doesn't deserve it! Stop!"

"Stay out of this, Chip!" Sonic growled out, venom hanging off his every word. He turned his attention back to the professor's assistant, who just squirmed to try and get out of his grip. "I've become a monster, and with all the events that happened today, I'm becoming more and more like one, too! And now, I'm not about to hold back on unleashing it all!"

"SONIIC!"

Sonic couldn't handle it anymore. All the pressure he was going through, the fact that nobody knew who he was anymore, the guy he was about to rip to shreds, Chip's worried shouts – it all formed together and exploded right in his mind. With a low growl, he unleashed his anger.

"SHUT UP, CHIP!"

He lashed one of his huge hands at Chip, claws fully protracted. With more force than he had intentionally put in, he slashed the fairy right in the chest area and sent him crashing into a wall, falling to the ground. Sonic breathed heavily, then finally realized what he had done. "Chip?"

There was no response.

"Chip!" he tossed the professor's assistant to the ground, who quickly scurried away, and knelt to the ground, picking Chip up in his arms. The fairy's eyes were closed, and he was unresponsive, not answering any of Sonic's worried shouts. "Chip, wake up!"

There was still no response. Sonic shook the fairy frantically, trying to get him conscious again, but it never happened. It was then that Sonic realized the three dark red cuts going across Chip's chest, each bleeding out gushes of blood.

"Oh god – what have I done?"

* * *

yeah, you guessed it. i was somewhat mad while writing this chapter. still kinda am, but still.

again, i got nothing to say.

please review


	7. Keeping the Distance

so, i tried something a little different - instead of doing the wii night levels, we're doing the ps3 night level instead. and i have to admit it was pretty damn fun writing it out. also, that last part of the level with the fountain and the clocktower and all - that was done all by memory. i was playing through the level and writing everything down, but then i ran out of time and didn't feel like playing the level over again. so, if anything seems a little off at the end, that's the reason.

* * *

Sunshine streamed through the light colored, translucent curtains, lighting the room up. Chip tiredly tried to open his eyes, but it felt as if there were weights on his eyelids. He lied on the rather comfortable couch, resting himself. But he was suddenly snapped out of the peace and tranquility when he heard silent mumbles and small, quiet sobs coming from across the room.

"...Wake up, Chip... I'm so sorry... _please_ wake up..."

Chip tried to open his eyes again. With enough force, he managed to lift up his eyelids halfway, revealing the large amounts of light into his carmel eyes. He grunted lightly and mumbled Sonic's name.

"S..Sonic..."

Sonic, who sat moping on the opposite couch, suddenly sat up at the sound of his name. Giving a gasp of surprise, he got up off his seat and raced over to Chip's side, pulling the fairy into a tight hug.

"Oh Chip... Chip, I'm so sorry..." Something didn't sound right in Sonic's voice. Was he... crying?

"Sonic... what happened last night..?" Chip murmured out weakly.

Sonic didn't let go of his friend, and sounded even more worried as he answered.

"I... I attacked you..." he said, letting go of Chip. He placed a gloved hand of the fairy's chest, stroking it lightly. Chip just noticed the fact that his chest now bared three white, blood stained bandages wrapped around him. He gasped at the sight as he recalled the events of the previous night. He put a hand to the back of his head, which strangely had a small bandage placed on it too. "I'm sorry, Chip.. I was just so mad.. I couldn't stop myself!"

Chip shook his head. "It's not your fault, Sonic," he mumbled.

"Yeah, it was!" Sonic got up, and turned away. "It was _my_ temper that got you in this state, and it was _my_ problems that led me to do all this to you and everybody else around me." Sonic sighed. "Its this whole werehog thing that's screwing with my mind – Not only does it mess up my performance, it messes with my head, it messes with my temper, it messes with my relationship with my friends – and it's completely **screwing me over!**"

He pounded his fist onto the table, nearly breaking the glass in it. Chip whimpered in fear, grabbing a nearby pillow and cowering behind it. Sonic breathed heavily and collapsed to his knees. He turned to Chip with a sad and desperate look in his eyes. "This whole thing us turning me into a monster. Nobody recognizes me anymore – everybody looks at me as if I'm some sort of freak. My friends don't know its me. I attacked you – I nearly _killed_ the professor's assistant..."

"It's not you fault, Sonic," Chip confirmed, his voice still a little weak. "You were mad... and I got in the way..."

"You were trying to stop me from murdering that guy!"

Chip sighed and sat back into the couch. "We're never gonna stop arguing about this... are we?" Sonic didn't answer, or really looked at him, for that matter. Chip shook his head. "We should – it's kinda wasting our time," he stated, attempting to change the subject. "If I remember correctly, the professor said that we could either visit the shrine here, or at Holos-"

"And that's where we're going. Holoska." Sonic got off the floor and began walking out of the room. "Come on."

"But Sonic," Chip began, also getting off his seat. He peered through the curtains out at the sky, which was starting to turn a bright orange color. It confused him a little, as the last time he was up and awake was nightfall. He must've been out longer than he thought he was... "It's almost sunset here! Why not just get this shrine out of the way?"

Sonic didn't answer, but managed to stop and listen.

"I know you don't want a repeat of last night, and I know you hate your other form, but it's easier to just go to this one," Chip continued.

"That's easy for you to say."

"Not really – I'm still kinda scared about last night." Sonic looked at him with a hint of aggression and question in his eyes. "You're scary when you're mad, Sonic – hedgehog _or_ werehog. But it's better to just get this over with while we're still here."

Sonic was about to reply, but the sun slowly sunk down to the horizon and the hedgehog felt the sudden darkness overpowering him. He dropped to his hands and knees, and let the darkness engulf him with a pain-filled yell. Everything of his nighttime form suddenly came back, leaving his living nightmare on the floor breathing heavily. He growled in frustration, then looked up at the fairy.

"Hugh... Fine.. but we're keeping a good, long distance away from each other." Sonic got up from the floor and walked halfway out of the room. "Come on, before I lose my patience."

Chip stood up and began to fly down to Sonic, but slowly dropped to the floor, a small hint of pain in his face.

"What's wrong?"

Chip pressed his lips and put a hand to his wing, feeling the texture. He winced as he felt over a scraped part of it, then looked up at Sonic. "My wing's scratched." He saw Sonic's look of surprise, then changed his answer. "B-but I should be fine – let's go."

The fairy walked in front of him, continuing out the door. Following, Sonic muttered something to himself Chip couldn't exactly make out. They walked out of the building, and into the town, as they hadn't really learned the location of the local shrine just yet. To Chip's request, they got some food, as he was actually feeling quite hungry at the time (though, Sonic was somewhat happy to hear that). They asked around the town, questioning everybody about the shrine's location and whether or not they had the moon tablet that went with it. Though, they all replied with an unsatisfying "no" - to both questions. Leaning against the wall of one of the buildings, Sonic sighed.

"How come nobody knows a damn thing about the shrine? Especially since it's _in _the the city they're living in?" he questioned, rolling his eyes. Chip shrugged.

"Um... excuse me? Mr. Sonic?" someone asked. Sonic raised an eyebrow and turned to the voice. A teenage girl wearing a green sweater with her curly hair pulled back in a loose ponytail stood before him, a curious look on her face. "I'm Lucia, and I overheard you guys talking about the shrine." Sonic listened. "If you wanna know where it is, it's somewhere to the left of the University."

Sonic gasped at the knowledge she had. "Wow – thanks, kid. You're about the best help we've had all day," he stated, getting off the wall.

"Oh, and I think you'll need this." Lucia held out her hand, and in it was the glinting blue-gray moon tablet – the missing piece to the Moon Door. "My grandfather originally gave it to me as a lucky charm, but I think you'll find more use for it."

"Thanks," Sonic mumbled as he reached for the tablet. Though, just as he was about to grab it, he stopped, his hand hovering over hers. He had small flashbacks and glimpses in his mind about what happened last night, and slowly took his hand away, not wanting to hurt another person. Thankfully, though, Chip seemed to take notice and grabbed the tablet for him. With a silent nod, the two walked off into the outskirts of the University, and continued onto where Lucia said the shrine would be. Sonic nearly collapsed with pity that he felt for the villagers as he found out how incredibly easy it was to find it. And yet nobody knew but that girl. Well, Otto, the dormsman at the University seemed to know, but he said he must've forgotten. Shrugging to himself, Sonic entered the shrine with Chip following behind. Once in, the fairy flew ahead of Sonic over to the door and placed the missing piece in. The door shined a moment, then lifted off the ground, allowing the two to pass. Once Sonic caught up with him, the two started walking down the dark pathway cautiously.

* * *

Deciding to try something a bit different, Sonic walked into the area, entering with a startling "YHA!" as he stepped in. Chip looked at him curiously.

"Oh, it's 'yha', now?" he questioned. Sonic didn't answer, then gave a rather unsatisfied look to him. With a small grunt, he placed a hand on Chip's tiny body and pushed him away as far as his arms would reach – which was quite a long distance.

"Stay that distance away from me, ok?" he started. Chip looked around, a mixture of surprise, sadness, and worry in his eyes.

"But that's so far!" he yelled back.

"Yeah, well, I don't wanna hurt you again." Without saying another word, Sonic began to walk down the streets of Spagonia, but was suddenly greeted by a bunch of green dino spawn racing up to him. "I didn't walk _two_ feet!" he growled to himself before springing into action. He gave some punches to some of the Dark Gaia spawn, and claw swiped the rest away. They all went flying, and eventually turned into that all familiar purple gas. Sonic turned a corner, but was stopped again by more nightmares emerging from the ground. He sighed, then looked around the place. Surprisingly, a seemingly explosive box was to the right of him, so he decided to pick it up. He chucked the box at the nightmares, and expectantly, the box blew up, killing one, severely damaging the others. Sonic raced over to the living creatures, then continued to beat the everliving crap out of them until they were no more. Looking around, he saw no more, but saw Chip flying up to him with a pouty look on his face.

"I don't wanna stay that far," he said as he approached him. Giving a small wince of pain, he slowly dropped to the ground, rubbing his wing.

"Chip – your wing's broke, and I ha-"

"It's not broken Sonic, it's just scratched. I'll be fine." He continued ahead of him, flying up the building. Climbing onto the ledge and swinging himself off of some nobs, Sonic followed. Though, as soon as he reached the top, he spotted Chip cowering in the corner, and more dinos reaching the two. Without thinking, he sprung into action and swiped his claws at them, then donkey-kicked them away. They dispersed, and more came up, racing towards him. He quickly swung his stretchy arms at them, swatting them all away. With a few more punches, they all decomposed, leaving nothing but the purple gas which soon evaporated. Sonic turned to Chip.

"I don't care if you'll be fine now," he confirmed. "You're not gonna be fine if I attack you again. Now _stay_." Sonic swung himself off a nob on the wall and onto the top of the building, then dropped down to some stairs, and raced down them, Chip slowly following far behind. Picking up another explosive box, Sonic walked down the rest of the stairs and chucked the box at the first nightmare in his sight. The explosion triggered the attention of other nightmares, as they all came racing to him. Sonic finished off the first creature, then threw some punches and claw swipes to the other nightmares that came near. Eventually, they all dispersed, but there were still some more.

Only, they weren't Dark Gaia spawn.

Sonic gasped as he spotted some of Eggman's robots moving towards him, ready to slice his head off with chainsaw-like swords. Nevertheless, Sonic rapidly swung his arms at them, breaking them into pieces. Though, some of the robots that were still whole managed to swipe their swords just at the right time, and hit Sonic square on. The werehog fell to the ground, and wiped some new found blood away from his side, swinging his arms at the other robots. He eventually broke them all into pieces, and the door blocking the way rose off the ground. Sonic put a hand to his new wound, wincing a little as he touched it.

"Are you ok, Sonic?" Chip asked worriedly, racing up to him. Sonic nodded.

"..Yeah," he answered. "Guess Eggman's not gonna let us into these temples too easily, is he?" Chip shrugged. "Wait a second – why are you over here? Get back!"

"I don't want to – it's lonely back there."

Sonic, not even giving another thought about it, continued walking through the door, though suddenly stopped when he was face to face with two different paths. Giving little thought, he turned to the right path and walked down it, and was met with a completely shut down door that obviously needed a switch or a key. He looked around, and soon saw two different colored compartments to the left and right of him, both in need of a key of some sort. Sighing, he backed up his search and looked through every hole in the wall, eventually coming up to a shiny green gem rock on some sort of pedestal. Sonic picked it up curiously, looking at it.

"Wow! It's so pretty!" Chip exclaimed. Sonic didn't say anything, but went back to the key slots and placed it into one of them. The rock shined brightly, seemingly lighting up the area, then dimmed back down. Sonic continued his search of the other rock, which he presumed was down the other path. Swiping some potted plants out of the way, he stepped over the debris and looked around for the rock. He found it to the right of him, and picked it up, walking back to the key holders. Once there, he placed the gem into the pedestal, then turned to see the door opening to reveal a new path.

"Interesting concept," Sonic mumbled to himself before walking into the new area. Though, before he could do anything else, Dark Gaia spawn popped out of the ground, suddenly moving towards him. Sonic charged at them, claws in full swing. He swiped them at the nightmares, knocking all of them down with a satisfying note. He looked around at the remaining options of continuation, but there wasn't much. There was a door, but it needed another one of those gem keys. And there was a gate, but there was no possible way Sonic could break through it all by himself – even he wasn't strong enough to do that. Looking around, he spotted a lever hidden behind a circle of potted plants, which he approached, but was stopped by more Eggman robots popping out of nowhere. He threw some punches at them, denting the metal they were created from, and soon knocked them all down, then approached the lever.

With enough strength, he pulled the lever over to its opposite side, then looked around to see what it did. The gate at the top of the hill suddenly opened, and out rolled what had to be the **hugest** barrel Sonic had ever seen. The large barrel crashed into the gate at the bottom, breaking it open, then rolled farther down the hill.

"Jeez, did you just see that?" he asked to no one in particular. Sonic walked over to the open gate, but was once again stopped by even more robots. Though, these ones were different – instead of having those weird chainsaw swords, they were armed with large blasters covering their bodies. They all quickly turned to Sonic, and seemingly danced right in front of him, making him raise an eyebrow. Nevertheless, Sonic raced over to one of them and knocked it to the ground, then turned to the other two. He cartwheeled into one of them, knocking it off balance, then kicked it out of the way, watching it explode into tiny parts. Though, his little entertainment show was short lived, as he felt balls of fire and energy being shot right at him.

"O-ow! Ow! AGH!" Sonic exclaimed every time he was hit. The shooting finally stopped, and he had just enough time to wipe the newly obtained carbon off his face before punching the life out of the robot. It fell, and Sonic turned to his new pathway and began to walk down it. Though, when he peered around the corner, he nearly jumped right out of his skin. He saw the gem key lying on the ground, but right next to it was a rather large, though not quite as big as the titan, monster, also obtaining semi-stretchy arms and a huge stomach with an opening in the middle of it. Looking around, Sonic grabbed onto a ledge above him and pulled himself up, trying his best to hide himself from the monster. If the titan he found in Apotos was bad, he could only imagine what this thing was like. He rounded the corner, nearly hugging the wall, then walked onto a larger walkway. Swiping some barrels out of the way, he spotted the answer to his problems – another one of those explosive boxes. Sonic picked it up and turned to the monster, who had seemed to take notice of his sudden racket. Carefully aiming, he chucked the box at it, awaiting the explosion. But it seemed to do just the exact opposite.

The monster opened up the mouth on its stomach, sucking the box up. Sonic stood there, his mouth agape. He jumped down to it and raced over to it, but was suddenly met by its large arm slamming him down. With a yell of pain, he fell straight to the ground, but soon got back up, facing the Big Mother. With all his might, he swung his arms at it rapidly, giving it as much damage as he possibly could. The Big Mother opened its mouth again, and Sonic braced himself for whatever it was gonna do. Some dino enemies popped out of its stomach, surrounding Sonic. Gasping and sighing at the same time, he swung his arms at all of them, claw swiping them all. Surprisingly, they all died, including the Big Mother, leaving the gem key up for grabs. Giving a sigh of relief, Sonic picked it up, and continued back up the path, then placed the gemstone into the slot.

The door rose up, marking the way to a new path. Though, before he could continue, Sonic was suddenly face to face with Chip, who had an amazed expression on his face. "Wow, Sonic! That was awesome!" he exclaimed, flying right next to him as he walked.

"I thought I told you to stay back."

The two continued through the alleys, and were once again stopped by even more nightmares, and a fence rising up behind them, blocking the way back. Sonic charged at them, claws in full swing. Though, one of the nightmares managed to outstretch its arms far enough to hit Sonic in the face two times in a row, each earning a pain filled grunt. Sonic knocked that nightmare out of his way, then turned to the other nightmares, and repeated the process. Continuing down the path, more robots blocked the way out, and another gate rose behind them.

"I don't have to put up with this!" Sonic exclaimed as he grabbed Chip and pushed his way through the crowd of robots, swinging his free arm at them. Rounding a corner, even more Dark Gaia spawn popped out at them, blocking their way. Sonic burrowed through them too, and ran around the corner and into a new area. Reaching another lever, he let go of Chip and pulled it. The reaction was the same, as another extra-extra large sized barrel whizzed by them, crushing any nightmares that had decided to follow them. "That's gotta be the biggest barrel I've ever seen."

Turning a corner, he walked down a hill, but was once again stopped by Chip. "I know I probably shouldn't be asking this, but who was that girl we ran into last night? Do you know her?"

Sonic nodded. "Her name's Amy, but a lot of people like to just randomly refer her as 'my creepy, blind, stalker-like, self-proclaimed girlfriend who seriously needs glasses,'" he answered.

"Girlfriend? You mean you guys are together?"

"No, we're not. She's just obsessed with me. I don't like her like that."

"Really?" Chip flew right in front of him, blocking his way. "You seemed pretty sad when she didn't recognize you."

Sonic shook his head. "Lemme get this straight, Chip – I don't like her, nor do I like anybody else. The only reason I was mad about last night was because she's my friend and it made me realize how much of a monster I am."

He tried to continue on without having to carry on the conversation, but Chip still hung around. "You're not as bad as you think, Sonic," he confirmed, looking ahead. In front of them was a large fountain right below the entrance of a clock tower, surrounded by a bunch of Eggman's robots, and topped off with yet another Big Mother. Sonic gasped when he saw the sudden mess of enemies, and turned to Chip.

"Stay here, ok?" he commanded.

"But Son-"

"Just stay here!" Sonic charged at the robots without saying another word, leaving Chip behind. Dashing straight towards them, he swung his claws out at a robot, leaving dents and scratches in it. He turned to see other robots charging at him, swords in full swing. Quickly thinking, he spun himself around with his arms extended. He dented some robots, and scratched others, but one robots remained untouched by his fists. It swung its sword at him, hitting Sonic right in the shoulder. The werehog fell to the ground in pain, clutching his now bloody shoulder.

"Damn robots..." he growled out while getting back up. Once up on his feet, he swung his arms wildly at the robots, denting each and every one of them. Eventually, with a few more claw swipes, they all fell before him and exploded into pieces. Sonic breathed heavily, and put a clawed hand to his new sword wound. Sighing deeply, he didn't even bother to answer Chip's calls as he ran over to the left of the fountain. Pulling himself up onto a ledge, he glanced at the Big Mother, then at the explosive crate right next to him.

"Ok, buddy – let's try this again," Sonic mumbled to himself as he picked up the box. Carefully aiming, he tossed the box at the Big Mother just as it was turning around to face him. The box hit it square in the side, throwing it back slightly, and damaging it a little. Giving a loud howl before racing up to it, Sonic charged at it with his claws fully protracted, slashing them at the monster. Though, before he could do any real damage to it, the Big Mother slammed him right to the ground with its large hand. Sonic got up with a grunt, and rubbed his sore back, then dashed right at his opponent again. He swung his claws at it aggressively, each swipe damaging it a little more. Though, like he did to the Titan in Apotos, Sonic decided to try a finishing move on the enemy. He uppercutted the monster, sending it off balance. He swung himself to the back of it, thrusting his spiky shoes right into its back, then swung himself right into the mouth on its stomach. As he entered it, he bounced himself around it, injuring it from the inside. The Big Mother eventually fell, and Sonic jumped out of its mouth just before it evaporated into nothing. He looked around cautiously, looking out for any other enemies patrolling the area. Thankfully, there were none, and Sonic continued his path to the now open door.

"Wow Sonic, that was way cooler than the last one!" Chip exclaimed as he caught up to the werehog. "I mean, that last move was kinda disgusting, but it was still cool!"

Sonic began walking through the door, but stopped and turned to Chip. "Stay back," he growled out. Chip looked at him with a surprised glance.

"B-but-"

"Just stay, ok? I'm doing this for your own safety, so live with it." Without saying another word, Sonic turned back and went through the door.

"But-" No reply. "Fine..." Chip sighed sadly, waiting a while before following. He finally entered the gigantic clock tower, then stopped to look around. By the time he spotted Sonic, he was already climbing up the gears and poles that operated the whole thing.

"Wow..." Chip mumbled to himself as he continued slowly after him. He flew swiftly onto the cranks and gears, then flew up to the next, all the while keeping a large distance from Sonic. Finally, he stopped his way up, flying in place over a gear. "Do you really think this whole distance thing is really necessary? I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

Sonic glanced down at him, but still continued upward. "You shouldn't ask that, Chip," he replied, swinging up a pole. "Like I said, I'm doing this for _your_ safety."

Chip had no actual reply to that, but started to feel a sharp stinging pain in his wing. Wincing, he slowly dropped to the gear below him, putting a hand to his sore wing. "My wing hurts," he stated blandly, hoping to catch Sonic's attention. It did, but not necessarily in the way he had hoped for.

"Yeah, well, you shoulda thought of that before convincing me to go here," he replied coldly, not even bothering to give so much as a downwards glance. Chip gasped.

"S-so you're just gonna _leave_ me down here?" he questioned hurtfully, walking ahead to keep Sonic in his sight.

"No, I'm gonna wait for you at the top," Sonic replied, swinging himself upward from one of the nobs on the wall.

"B-but Sonic! What if it's worse than I thought? What if I _can't_ get up- AAAUH!" Taking one step too far, Chip accidentally stepped right off the gear, letting a shrilled scream escape his mouth as he fell. He fell past the gears below him, shrieking as he went, but something stopped his fall. Something caught onto his foot and stopped him from falling to his death. "...Sonic?" Chip whimpered with a shaky voice. He opened his eyes and quickly checked what had happened. Sonic was nowhere in sight, and what had caught him sure wasn't his clawed hand.

His foot was caught between a large gear's wedge, and was spinning him around slowly. "Sonic? Sonic, my foot's stuck!" he yelled out, hoping to hear a reply. Though, nothing came back, and Sonic still wasn't in sight. Chip gulped and silently wondered whether or not Sonic was still in the building. He shook himself and attempted to free his foot, but the gear had quite a good grip on him. Chip soon gave up, but soon screamed loudly as he saw what was going to happen to him. Looking ahead, he saw that his head was perfectly aligned with two intertwining gears below, and the crank he was caught on was rotating towards them.

"AAAAUUHH! Sonic! SONIIIIC!" He screamed, desperately struggling to free himself. Though, he was still stuck, and was still moving towards the gears that were about to kill him. Fearing the worst, Chip gulped and clenched his eyes shut, giving out another scream as he awaited his fate, then silently whimpered out Sonic's name. But right before his head could be crushed in between the gears, something pulled him away, saving his life. Breathing quite heavily, Chip slowly opened his eyes and peered at his savior.

Sure enough, Sonic the Werehog stood before him, holding the fairy in front of him upside down by his foot.

Before either of them had a chance to say anything, Chip swung himself up and hugged Sonic tightly, nearly breaking into tears. Neither said anything, but small and scared whimpers escaped Chip's throat. Sonic stroked his back lightly with his hand, attempting to calm him down.

"It's all right, Chip. You're ok – you're ok..." Chip seemed to clutch onto his fur tighter, and buried his face into Sonic's chest. Though, Sonic wasn't necessarily surprised – nearly getting crushed in between gears wasn't the most pleasant experience. He glanced upward with a sigh, examining how far he had to climb to get back up to where he originally was before. Sonic whispered to Chip to hang on tight before he grabbed onto the nearest gear above him and pulled himself up. He grabbed onto the next, repeating the process until he reached the nobs on the wall. He warned Chip to hang on even tighter, which he did, then jumped and grabbed the nob. Carefully planning his ascent, instead of spinning then throwing himself up, which would easily toss Chip right off of him, he kicked himself up from the wall, quickly latching onto the next. Looking sideways, he swung himself over to nob on the left of him, grabbing onto it, then swung himself onto solid ground.

Sonic looked up, and grabbed onto the nearest gear above him. Pulling himself up, he wiped a small dribble of sweat off his forehead and clutched onto the next. He got up on top of it, then swung slowly and carefully onto the poles that led to the exit, careful not to fling Chip off of him. The two finally reached the top, and Sonic raced through the door, but stopped his run before he nearly fell off the edge. He breathed heavily, and looked down at Chip, who still had quite a grip on his fur.

"I, uh.. I think you can let go of me now," he stated. Though, he felt Chip shake his head, not saying a word. "Yeah.. I guess we should get to actual ground before that."

Looking to his right, he spotted a turnable lever that probably operated the clock's arms. Sonic raced over to it and lay his hands onto it, pushing it clockwise. Expectantly, he could hear cranking and whirring, probably from the clock arms moving. He heard a 'dong' sound, and stopped pushing, looking up at the clock. The arms of the clock were almost perfectly line up in a straight line, one arm at the three, the other at the nine. Sonic grabbed onto one of the nobs, and, using the same strategy as he did before, swung himself up instead of spin-throwing. He landed on the clock arm, and couldn't help but look down at the city below.

"Man, the people of Spagonia are gonna be _sooo_ pissed at us when they found out we messed up their clock," he mumbled to himself as he scooted himself over to the left. Once across the clock, Sonic jumped and grabbed onto a nearby flying enemy, slowly dropping himself down to the next, then dropped down to the ground. Walking over to the middle of the small walkway, he could just spot the exit just up ahead, across a very wide ditch. Thankfully, the flying bat things appeared out of nowhere, leading a way across. Sonic jumped and grabbed onto the nearest bat, flinging himself to the next. Once in the air, he grabbed onto the next nearest bat, swinging himself over to solid ground.

Once up on his feet without having to worry about falling off the building to his death, Sonic looked ahead to the end, which was blocked by a few Dark Gaia nightmares patrolling the area. Grabbing Chip and placing him on the ground beside him, Sonic charged at the nightmares, swinging his claws viciously at them. He hit two of them and focused on them, throwing punches at them until they fell. One of them managed to land a punch on Sonic, but he quickly shrugged it off and slammed him to the ground, watching it evaporate. Though, one was still alive, and Sonic spotted it moving towards Chip, who was hiding in a small rectangular perimeter around the rooftop filled with water. Jumping through the purple gas in front of him, Sonic lunged right at it with his claws extended right in front of him, knocking it to the ground. Rolling right off of it, he kept a grip on its leg and swung it over his head, slamming it right to the ground, then swung him to the back. He repeated the process a couple more times, then jumped up into the air and slammed the nightmare down hard.

Breathing heavily, Sonic turned to Chip with a look of exhaustion on his face. The fairy climbed out of the three inch deep water, and quickly ran up to Sonic, latching onto his arm. Sonic sighed, but didn't say anything as he walked over to the exit.

* * *

"I think you can let go now, Chip," Sonic grumbled as he walked back into the University grounds.

"No – you're warm," Chip replied, burying himself into Sonic's long fur.

"Get off!"

"Ok."

A little scared, Chip hurriedly let go of Sonic, and landed on the ground. The two continued to the town, Chip requesting for some more food.

"Sooo... what about the whole distance thing? Is that gone?" Chip questioned, following Sonic on the ground for a small fear of flying again. Sonic stopped in his tracks, and turned to the fairy.

"Oh _please_ tell me that whole thing with the clock tower wasn't just a ploy to get closer to me!" he growled, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Chip looked around frantically.

"Uh- no! It wasn't originally, but... now that I think about it..." His small reply led Sonic to just roll his eyes and continue on. Chip looked ahead, regretting what he had just said. "I feel safer when you're near."

The sudden statement stopped Sonic in his tracks. He turned around, glancing at Chip with question in his eyes.

"You saved my life tonight, and without you there, I would've died," Chip explained, walking up to him. Sonic was about to reply, but something stopped him.

"Hey Sonic! Wait up!" he heard Tails call out from behind. The two turned to him.

"Yeah, buddy?"

Tails stopped right in front of him, holding out a medium sized camera. "The professor told me to give this to you, and that it might come in handy," he answered.

"Handy? Handy for what?"

"I dunno – he just told me to give it to you."

"So, is that all?"

"Yeah, pretty much. See yah later!" With that, Tails ran back to the laboratory, waving back to them as he went. Sonic looked at the camera in his hand, then handed it to Chip.

"Weird..." Sonic walked ahead into the town, but suddenly stopped when he heard shouting. Whether it was pleasant shouting or fearful, he couldn't really decide – it was a mixture of both. He walked ahead to see what was happening. A small group of people were huddled up together. Dancing. Some of the people he had met earlier today were there, dancing with each other. Among the crowd was the possessed assistant of the professor, which wasn't all too strange.

What really got on Sonic's nerves was the assistant's dance partner.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" Amy questioned as she was spun around wildly by the man. She didn't really look like she was dancing willingly, but she wasn't exactly putting up much of an argument either. The assistant chuckled.

"Come on, babe! Let's dance the night away!" he shouted out as he continued to dance.

"Ugh! Help!"

The two looked at the scene with question in their eyes. Taking out the camera, Chip decided to speak out first.

"Woah – is there some kind of party going on?" he asked, looking through the lens of the camera.

"No – something's not right, here." Chip zoomed in on the scene, snapping a few pictures. To both their surprises, something seemed to happen. Nightmares emerged out of the citizens' bodies, leaving them to collapse to the ground. Amy was finally let go of, and she seemed to spin away from the scene dizzily, eventually falling to the ground. The two gasped, and Chip snapped some more pictures. The nightmares seemed to take notice of them, and turned to face them. Sonic dashed towards them, slamming his claws right into them. He turned around and continued to slash his claws at them until they were nothing but gas. Surprisingly, it was a rather short fight, and no more nightmares came out. Shrugging to himself, he walked away and went over to Amy, helping her up. She groaned dizzily, then turned over to Sonic. But before she could spot him, he extended his arm and grabbed onto a pole, swinging himself away from her sights.

Chip stood with question in his eyes. "Sonic? Wait up!" Quickly, he attempted to fly again to catch up to the werehog. He looked around, and spotted him walking into an alley. He caught up to him and dropped to the ground, walking along side him.

"Why'd you run away from her, Sonic?" he questioned.

"I don't want her seeing me like this."

"I thought you said you didn't like her."

"I don't."

"Then... why'd you help her?"

Sonic stopped walking, and glanced at Chip. "I may not love her, but I still care about her. She's my friend, and that's what friends do. Like how I saved you from getting your head smashed tonight." Chip shuddered, recalling the frightful event.

"Ok... Are we still going to the Professor's lab?" he asked. Sonic nodded.

"That's the plan." The two continued walking over to the professor's lab, not saying another word about what had just happened. Once there, Sonic knocked on the door, which was oddly shut closed. He pressed an ear against the door, trying to hear what was happening inside the room. Surprisingly, he heard the professor's voice, but he heard someone else's voice as well. A very familiar one – not Tails. Curious, Sonic placed a hand on the doorknob and opened the door. Before he could say anything though, he heard an ear-piercing shout fill the air, and he was suddenly glomped by none other than Amy Rose.

"SONIC!"

Sonic nearly tipped over from the sudden hug, but let her embrace him, as he felt he needed it.

"Sonic? Is that really you?" she questioned, burying her face into his chest.

"Yup – sadly."

He could've sworn he heard her start to cry, but that could've just been her exclaims.

"Oh Sonic, I'm _so_ sorry I didn't recognize you before!" Amy finally let go of him, and seemingly wiped a tear from her eye. "Even if you've completely changed your look, you're still Sonic to me!"

Sonic blushed. Not of love or embarrassment, but of reassurance. He needed to hear that, especially from his friends.

"Thanks, Amy." He gave her a heartwarming smile, which in turn made her blush. Sonic turned to the professor, and nodded to him to fill him in on the next step of the journey.

"So, do you like my camera?" Pickle questioned, a small smirk on his face. Sonic gasped – he had completely forgotten about it.

"Yeah, it'll probably help a lot."

"Glad to hear, because you might need it in where you're going next." The professor pulled something out from his pocket, handing it to Sonic. It was a picture of a place filled with ice and snow, most likely Holoska. "Holoska's a very dangerous place, and I've heard from very reliable sources that it's the coldest place in the entire world! I suggest that you three bundle up and get that place over with as soon as possible. Now get to it!" Sonic nodded, then turned over to Tails.

"Wanna give us a ride, Tails?" he questioned with a smirk. Tails' face seemed to light up.

"Of course! I kinda always wanted to check out Holoska!" he answered. Sonic nodded.

"Well then – let's get to it!"

* * *

now before i get any haters, know that this story does NOT contain Sonamy in it. unless you consider Amy-obsessing-over-Sonic-Sonic-running-away Sonamy. just know that i don't support Sonic with ANYBODY. period.

just wanted to clear that up.


	8. Break the Ice

yeah, sorry about the fact that i completely forgot about the tablet fragment in the other part - completely slipped my mind. anyway, enjoy

* * *

Conversation struck from all sides throughout the plane ride. Talk of the adventure ahead, what had already happened, and what each were planning to do once they reached the frozen lands of Holoska. The conversation went blank about halfway through, that is, until Sonic shouted out a rather frightening thought – to him, anyways. Looking back on last night's adventure, he realized that he had completely forgotten to look for the tablet fragment in Spagonia. Thankfully though, Chip seemed to have remembered it, and pulled it out, handing it to Sonic. The hedgehog sighed with relief, but soon noticed another problem once they were in Holoska – one probably more life threatening.

He felt the plane shake wildly, as if something was malfunctioning. Quickly, Sonic turned over to Tails with a questioned look. "Hey Tails, are you feeling that?"

"Y-yeah," he answered, looking around frantically. "I think there may be something wrong with the engine."

"And the wings – they're covered in ice! It's almost hard to stay on!"

Tails gasped deeply, glancing at the now ice-covered wings, and gave out a small yelp as the plane shook again. "That's not good – Sonic, you think you can get it off?"

Sonic nodded, then grabbed the side of the plane and began to chip off the ice with his feet. Once almost completely off, he swung himself over to the other wing and repeated the process. After he finished, he turned to Tails again.

"It's gone, Tails, but it'll probably appear again later," he stated.

"That's what I'm afraid of," he sighed. "Do you think you two can make it to the village on your own if I drop you off here? I don't think the plane can make it all the way!"

Sonic considered his answer, then looked over to Chip, who just shrugged. He then gave a nod to Tails. "If you think it's necessary, then go ahead."

Tails nodded, then began to fly the plane a little closer to the ground. Sonic grabbed Chip and got ready to jump off. "Hey Tails," he said, turning back to the fox. "We'll take some pictures for you, ok?" Tails nodded. "Have a safe trip back!"

And with that, Sonic jumped down to the snowy ground below, Chip following close behind. As he landed, he stumbled a little, as it was hard to land perfectly in snow. Chip followed after, falling face first into the at least six inch deep snow. Sonic pulled him out, and looked into the distance. Tails was completely out of sight, and the strong icy winds blowing by made it even harder to see ahead. Whispering a silent goodbye, the two began to walk the way they were originally going.

"Wow... everything's s-so w-white here," Chip started, shivering. "And c-c-cold, too. W-what is this stuff, a-anyway?"

Sonic gasped. "Y-you don't know what snow is?" he questioned, also shaking a little from the cold. Chip shook his head. "M-man – now I _really_ feel g-guilty about making you lose your m-memory..."

Chip flew onto Sonic's head, his teeth chattering wildly. "I-it's so c-c-cold here..."

"Yeah well, it'll probably be a little warmer at the village," Sonic stated, shivering a little. "It'll be better if we get there sooner."

"Ok."

"Hang on tight, Chip." Sonic got down to a sprinting position, and began running a decent speed towards their destination. He wasn't gonna lie – he was also getting pretty cold from the icy weather. But besides wanting to get to warmth as soon as possible, he was also anxious to go through the sun door in the shrine. It had been a while since he had experienced the pleasure of racing right through a stage that felt as if it were made especially for him. Especially since he had so much bad experiences from the previous nights, he needed some relief from all the stress that was being dumped on him lately. He sighed and began daydreaming about such an event, and unconsciously began to pick up speed the more he thought about it. Sonic got so deep in his thoughts, in fact, that he didn't even notice Chip's sudden requests.

"S-Sonic! S-slow down!" he spoke through chattering teeth. The piercing icy winds blowing into his face was hard to tolerate, not to mention they were going so fast that his grip on Sonic's ears was slowly starting to slip. Though Sonic didn't seem to notice his urgent plea, and he wasn't sure if the hedgehog couldn't hear him, or if he just wasn't paying attention. Becoming quite frantic, he shouted out his name again. "Sonic!"

Still no answer, and Chip's grip was almost lost. Clenching his eyes shut, he dipped his head into Sonic's quills away from the wind and attempted to tighten his grip. Though, the strong winds and the speed they were going made it hard to maintain. One of his hands slipped off, but he managed to quickly grab Sonic's quill instead. Chip attempted to move his other hand to his quill, but almost flew off as he let go. He struggled to grab Sonic's quill with his other hand, but he just couldn't grab it. And his other hand was slipping off his quill, even faster than it did on Sonic's ear.

"S-So-Soniiiiic!" Chip's hand finally slipped off Sonic's quill, and he flew back with a yelp. He skipped into the snow like a rock would atop of water and skidded to a stop on his back. Gasping in deeply, he sat up and looked ahead. "...S-Sonic?"

The speedy hedgehog was nowhere in sight, and Chip was almost sure he was far away by now. Shivering from the cold and mumbling out Sonic's name again, he climbed out of the hole in the snow that he had made. He stumbled a little from the deep snow, but still attempted to continue on, as if he was actually trying to get to the village on his own. Though, Chip already knew that he wasn't going to make it – the village was still miles away despite how far they had already gone. His scratched wing wasn't feeling all too great, either, and the cold air made it feel even worse. Slowly, he stopped his tread through the deep snow and collapsed to the ground from the cold. He gave up, and curled up to himself to keep warm with only one thing left on his mind -

_'Sonic... where are you?_

…

It took a while, but Sonic eventually got out of his trance and was once again focused on the road ahead. He wildly blinked his eyes to keep them from freezing, and finally noticed how much speed he had picked up. He slowed down a little, and began to see the beginnings of a small village just about half a mile ahead. Giving a sigh of relief, he spoke out to his friend.

"I–I think I s-see the village, C-Chip..." he informed. Sonic was slightly surprised at how shaky his voice sounded at the moment, but didn't pay attention to it, and started to slow down to hear Chip's reply. But nothing came. "Chip?"

Sonic skidded to a stop, and placed a hand on top of his head, expecting to feel a small furry body hanging onto it. But he soon started to freak out when he felt nothing but his own smooth quills that were starting to freeze. "Chip?" Sonic looked around frantically, but saw nothing but snow. "Chip! Chip, where are you?"

Worriedly, he attempted to retrace his tracks, hoping to find the fairy soon before he froze to death. Sonic knew Chip must've accidentally fallen off of him – he wasn't the type to just randomly start flying off without telling anybody. That, and his wing wasn't feeling all too swell, so even if he did, he couldn't have gotten very far. Sonic started a fast jog, all the while retracing where he had gone and calling out Chip's name. He looked around frantically in all directions, hoping to find his friend quickly. Though, he still didn't find any trace of the fairy. He started to increase his speed every time he called out Chip's name, and eventually found himself running at the speed he was originally at before this whole ordeal even began.

Sonic must've ran at least a mile before his former tracks were completely covered with snow and not visible anymore. The winds were growing stronger, and more snow began to fall, almost as if a blizzard was about to begin. The thought of it made Sonic run even faster, as he was in no shape to be caught in one. Eventually, he reached an area he remembered was somewhat close to where he started to daydream, and soon picked up speed. Looking around the area, he called Chip's name out once again.

"Chip!"

There was still no answer to his calls. Sonic skidded to a stop with a hint of sadness and disappointment suppressed in his face. What if he didn't find him in time? What if Chip was already in the midst of the freezing atmosphere, just about ready to give up and die? Those horrible thoughts began to fill Sonic's head, and he quickly shook them out before they actually took place. Breathing heavily, he looked ahead, and managed to make out a small maroon-red blotch hidden in the midst of the snow. Sonic immediately knew what it was, and quickly raced over to it.

"Chip!" He skidded to a stop, in which he accidentally threw a blanket of snow atop of the already snow-coated Chip. Kneeling down, he quickly brushed off the snow with his hand, and picked the fairy up. "Chip, are you ok? I'm so sorry! I-I didn't realize I was going that fast..."

The just barely conscious Chip managed to lift his head up a little and mumble out something that Sonic couldn't understand. The fairy said nothing more, and curled up into a ball against Sonic's body, shivering profusely. Sonic began to shiver as well when he felt Chip's cold body come in contact with his – the fairy was _freezing_ cold! Sonic was now regretting his actions more than he did before, and began to re-retrace his tracks and continue on to the village, all the while hugging Chip close to him in an attempt to warm him up. Though, his low body heat didn't seem to do anything for the fairy, as Chip just shivered and shook even more.

There was more than a mile distance between the two and the village, and Sonic knew they weren't going to make it by walking. He broke into a fast jog, hugging Chip close to him to make sure he didn't fall off again. Though Sonic would never actually admit it, this was one of the **very** few times he actually _wanted_ to transform into his werehog form. He knew the experience was horrible, and that he didn't trust himself in it, but the long ragged fur he would obtain would be just perfect for this type of weather. He nor Chip would be _nearly_ as cold as they were now. The icy winds seemed to blow even harder, nearly pushing Sonic back a little. All the snow falling from the sky made it even harder to see ahead, as everything just appeared a never-ending white. Sonic eventually slowed his run as he realized he wasn't going to make it in this terrible weather.

There was still half a mile to the village, but Sonic could once again just barely spot it in the distance. Shivering wildly, he spoke out again. "We-we're almost th-there, Ch-Chip..."

No reply came from his friend, and Sonic once again looked at him to make sure he was still there. Chip was still curled up against his body, but he seemed to have fallen unconscious from the cold. Sonic couldn't say he was necessarily surprised, as he felt as if he was going to collapse from the cold as well, and he pulled Chip closer to his body, attempting once again to warm him up. He shook wildly, but still continued on to the village just by walking. Though the village was just up ahead, he didn't feel like he could make it all the way. His legs were about to give out, and he felt like he was about to collapse. Taking a couple more steps, he soon collapsed to the ground, giving into the cold. He breathed heavily, and his eyelids slowly started to drop. Sonic eventually closed his eyes completely, falling into a long-awaited slumber.

* * *

As soon as he regained consciousness, Sonic knew he really needed some sleep. He was still extremely tired and honestly didn't even feel like continuing the journey without a good amount of sleep, perhaps even a few whole days of it. But alas, the Chaos Emeralds weren't about to place themselves into the temples and restore the planet. Reluctantly, Sonic slowly opened his eyes and was nearly blinded by the bluish-white ice surrounding him. Giving out a small grunt, he examined his surroundings with curious eyes. Expectantly, he was still in Holoska – but he wasn't stuck in the snow storm anymore. In fact, he didn't see any snow falling at all! Needless to say, he was pretty confused at the moment. But a small, young voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Dad! Come here – he's waking up!"

Sonic clenched his eyes shut and grunted. High pitched kid voices weren't exactly the first thing he wanted to hear when he woke up. Though, he couldn't necessarily say he knew who the voice belonged to. But before he could figure it out, his left arm was shaken wildly by someone.

"See, Dad? I told you he was alive!" He heard the voice speak again. Sighing deeply, he opened his eyes once again, which was somewhat hard due to his recent fatigue. To his left, he saw a young girl no older than nine or so wearing a thick wool coat completely fit for the weather grabbing onto his arm and shaking it. She was looking away from him, but Sonic knew her attention was about to turn to him again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a middle-aged man with the same attire walk right up to the girl, looking at Sonic. He put a gloved hand to his chin and nodded his head.

"Hmm..." he started. "I guess you were right. He sure is lucky." Sonic didn't say anything – he had other things on his mind. "But what about the chihuahua?"

The sudden statement pushed all the other thoughts out of Sonic's head. He looked around worriedly, breathing heavily. "Where is he? Where's Chip?" he questioned, sitting up.

"Chip? You mean the chihuahua?" Sonic nodded. The girl turned around and walked to the other side of what Sonic now realized was an igloo, scooping something into her arms. The hedgehog immediately recognized it, and sat up to examine him.

"Is he ok?" he asked worriedly. The girl nodded silently, handing the fairy to him. Chip was still unconscious, and Sonic wasn't too sure when he was going to wake up.

"It's funny, really..." The man, whom Sonic presumed was the girl's father, spoke up. "We found him in your arms, but yet, he still seemed to be in a worse condition than you." Immediately, Sonic pulled Chip closer to his body, attempting to warm him up again. He sighed deeply.

"It's my fault... I was running so fast that I didn't notice him fall off until much later... and when I came back for him, he was about ready to freeze to death..." Sonic held Chip tighter, another sigh escaping his lips.

"But he's ok now!" the girl exclaimed with a reassuring smile on her face. Sonic managed a small smile, but it soon wiped away.

"So... is this the Holoskan village?" he questioned. "We were originally coming here in a plane, but my friend had some plane trouble."

The girl nodded. "Yup! I'm Marketa!"

"And I'm Jari-Thure, nice to meet you," the man nodded.

"I'm Sonic," Was all the hedgehog could really muster out. He sighed deeply as he stroked Chip's fur lightly, waiting for him to wake up.

"So, why exactly did you come here?" Jari-Thure questioned. "There's nothing to see, at least nothing worth risking your life over."

"We're planning to go into the Temple of Gaia here, and restore this continent." Jari-Thure seemed to react with fear at the sound of 'the Temple of Gaia', and quickly looked at Marketa with desperate eyes.

"Oh god – did you see your mother around anywhere?" he questioned, an obvious fear in his voice. Marketa nodded. "Ahh! Gotta go!" Without another word, he raced out of the igloo, leaving the three behind.

Sonic looked ahead with question in his eyes. "Why is he running away?" he asked.

"Mom's trying to make him go into the shrine, but he's too afraid to go in – so he's hiding from her," Marketa answered.

"Well, we can go in for him," Sonic admitted. "We were planning to go there, anyways." Marketa shrugged.

"You'd have to talk to my mom for that. She has the key to get in," She replied. Sonic nodded silently, then without another word, he got up onto his feet and walked out of the igloo with an unconscious Chip in his arms. Looking around, he saw nothing but white. The entire place was covered in snow, and it was falling lightly around, unlike a few hours ago. At least three igloos surrounded the area, and there was a small lumber yard to the right of him. Sonic didn't spot many people walking around – only about three others that he hadn't seen before. Looking around again and hugging Chip closer to his body, he spotted a young-aged woman walking around that looked like she would most likely be Marketa's mother.

"Excuse me?" Sonic started walking up to her. "Are you Marketa's mother?" The woman turned to him with a questioned look, then nodded.

"Yes, I'm Sarianna," she introduced herself. "Umm... this may seem strange, but have you seen my husband around? He's been running away from me all day..."

Sonic thought long and hard about calling Jari-Thure out on that. He knew it wasn't the nicest thing to do, but the man seriously needed to get some guts in him and face his wife like a real man should. But he had a mission to do, and calling him out would ruin it completely.

"Uh... no, don't think I have," he lied reluctantly.

"Damn... He should just get over that stupid fear already, and face me like a man." Sonic laughed silently to himself. Apparently this woman was thinking the same thing he was. "I mean... what could _possibly_ be that scary in the shrine?"

Sonic cleared his throat, stopping Sarianna from continuing her rant.

"Well, um... if you want, I can go in instead," he stated. "I was planning to go in there, anyway."

"You would do that? That'd be great!" Sarianna exclaimed with delight. Her smile was still clear on her face as she fished out something out of her pocket, and handed it to Sonic. "Here's the key to the door with the sun on it. Now go quickly! Oh, and if you happen to see my husband, tell him that I'm coming for him."

Sonic nodded, and with a small laugh, he walked over to the shrine, which was surprisingly really easy to find, unlike Spagonia's shrine. Then again, Spagonia was much larger than Holoska, and things could be hidden easier there. But before he could go any further, he heard a small murmur break the silence, and felt something move against his body. Cautiously, he looked down to the creature in his arms and gasped as he saw him slowly lifting his eyelids.

"Chip? Come on, Chip – wake up," he urged with a smile clear as day as he lightly shook him.

The light shaking earned another groan from Chip, but he managed to groggily open his eyes and look around. He blinked tiredly, then looked up to Sonic. "Ugh... huh? ..Where are we...?" he questioned, looking as if he was about to fall back asleep at any given moment.

"We made it – we're in the village."

Chip replied with a silent nod, then snuggled back up to Sonic's chest. "I'm tired..." he mumbled, closing his eyes.

"_You're_ tired? Try to imagine how _I_ feel." It was true – Sonic had gotten an extreme fatigue over the journey. He guessed that it was most likely because of the werehog adventures at nighttime, and not getting any sleep. In fact, lately, he almost didn't feel up to going on any adventures because of his recent fatigue – even the day trips! It felt almost as if he was going to collapse at any given moment. The only sleep he had gotten since the beginning of his journey was when he had fallen unconscious a little while ago – but that was only for a few hours.

Giving a small yawn, Sonic entered the shrine with Chip laying silently in his arms. He eventually dropped the fairy, telling him that he couldn't carry him everywhere he went, and that they were already going through a day stage. Though, the two were both taken by surprise when they entered the shrine, and Sonic was suddenly engulfed by darkness once again, turning him back into his werehog form. Sonic breathed heavily and put a hand to his head, but continued over to the glowing sun door. It was somewhat hard to do, though, as the whole shrine was covered in glazing blue-white ice, unlike the other shrines. Nevertheless, he handed the sun tablet he had obtained from Sarianna to Chip, allowing him to place it into the door. As he did, the door shined brightly and lifted off the ground. Giving a small smile, Sonic led Chip into the dark hallway, excited for another fantastic adventure.

* * *

Sonic gave a small smile as he looked out into the distance. As if part of a routine, he got down to a running position, lightly laying his fingertips onto the cold, white snow. He sighed with relief – it had been a while since he had gotten excited for runs like this. Gradually, the werehog bits of his adventure were getting better (very slowly), but not like this. Runs like these made the hedgehog feel as if nothing could touch him, or stop him for that matter.

"Hey Sonic? You think you can-" Before Chip could even begin to finish his sentence, Sonic gasped in deeply as he spotted what could've been the best start to a run. His eyes lighted up with delight, and his voice showed it.

"BOBSLED!"

Sonic grabbed Chip's wrist, and with nearly lightning speed, he sprinted over to the sled and jumped into it. The sudden force pushed the bobsled onto a dash panel, which sent it hurling down a snow-covered slope. Quickly, Sonic leaned the sled over to his right, sending it into another dash panel. One panel led to another, and the two soon found themselves going a rather fast pace down the slope. Rounding a few corners, Sonic made sure to turn the bobsled over so that it hit every dash panel in his path. With each passing panel and the rapidly increasing speed, the hedgehog was screaming out with delight.

"Woohoo!" Yeah!" Though, while Sonic was shouting out things with delight, Chip was screaming even louder every time the bobsled went over a dash panel. He clung onto Sonic's back tighter, almost digging his fingers into his body. Some more dash panels and increasing speed and velocity sent the bobsled onto a downwards hill surrounded by ice caps. Though, the hill hand many bumps and mini mountains of snow topping it, making the ride bumpier than before. Down the rest of the hill, Sonic leaned the bobsled to the left, rounding another corner. More dash panels sent them down another slope, which quickly turned into a large jump over a huge body of water. The dash panels sent them hurling safely over to another land mark, but earned even more screaming from Chip.

"Jeez, Chip – calm down!" Sonic yelled back with a smirk. The fairy seemed to slow his breathing a bit, then listened briefly on what Sonic had to say. "Just think of this as a roller coaster that we can control, and if we don't control it good enough, then we die!"

The last statement made Chip scream even louder than before, but soon started to speak out as they continued down the hill.

"Sonic, WATCH OUT!" he shouted out, pointing ahead. Sonic turned his head, and quickly gasped as he found out what Chip was referring to. Giant ice pillars fell from the sides, blocking their road. Thinking quickly, Sonic maneuvered the sled through the giant shards of ice, then came around another corner. Once off, they were sent down a straight pathway by more dash panels, and more giant icicles began falling from the sky. Giving a smirk, Sonic leaned the sled left and right, dodging the shards of ice and giving out a delighted shout each time. Once safe from the icicles, a dash panel boosted the sled forward into a narrow tunnel filled with shards of very fragile ice blocking the way.

Sonic rammed the sled right through them, sending small shards of ice in every direction. He put a hand up in front of his face, blocking any shards that could come near it. More dash panels sent the two into an extremely windy path, the only means of turning in it were from conveniently placed panels. Coming up on his third wind around, a panel sent the sled boosting into some robots, which knocked them completely off their feet. The last wind led to another small jump over a small body of water. Landing safely, Sonic spotted more obstacles in their path – pits with spikes at the bottom. Thinking quick, he got down to a jumping position, and as he sprung up, he held onto the sides of the bobsled, bringing it with him. He repeated the process a few more times before racing down a small but narrow hill, a small bump at the end sending both Sonic and Chip flying out of the sled and through three red rings. Needless to say, Sonic was somewhat sad that his bobsled trip was over, but didn't mind it too much. Running was his thing, but a quick bobsled ride was always great fun.

As he landed safely onto a rail, he jumped down to a lower level, boosting himself around a corner. He bounced off a spring and homing attacked a robot on the end of another pathway, boosting onto it. More dash panels sent him sprinting through turns and down narrow pathways of ice, and eventually landed him down to regular snow again. Another boost almost made him crash into a wall, but a hidden stomp path allowed him to avoid that as he dropped down to another rail. Quickly ending his grind on it, a nearby spring bounced him into the air, in which Sonic came hurling down onto some robots and boosted through the path. Another wall blocked his way, but Sonic was quick to get down onto his side and slide through the narrow opening. Once out, he stomped on more breakable ice, opening a new pathway. He landed safely onto a block of ice which quickly started to shake and rattle as soon as he came in contact with it. Jumping into the air, he dodged the wind of a fan robot by homing attacking it, then bouncing himself from robot to robot. Sonic landed safely on the other side of the junk heaps, then boosted into another dash panel, smirking as he went.

A spring at the end of the pathway sent the hedgehog onto another path; a dash panel boosting him down a vertical slope. Sonic boosted himself through a row of robots, then boosted right around a loop of ice. Once off, he dropped down to a downwards zig-zag path and stomped his way through some ice. Landing almost perfectly onto a dash panel, Sonic was boosted through what looked like a large underground cave of ice. Light from the water seemed to glimmer off the ice, lighting the area up as Sonic rounded it, then boosted himself onto a spring, dodging little jumping machine bugs as he went. More icicles began to fall from above, and Sonic was quick to dodge them, but couldn't help but quickly look back to see how far away Chip was. Surprisingly, the fairy was still pretty far from him, but was nowhere near as far as he had been in Apotos. Sonic smiled to himself.

Chip was finally beginning learn how to keep up with Sonic the hedgehog.

Sonic whistled to Chip as a signal to hurry up, then dashed through a line of breakable ice panels, each dropping to the ground below after he stepped on them. Giving a small smirk, Sonic rounded a corner and continued over to a sheet of breakable ice blocked off by a projectile robot. Homing attacking it out of the way, he stomped his way down the ice and landed onto a completely different pathway. Sprinting over another line of ice he repeated the same process as before and stomped down to another level. A tipping platform blocked his path, but Sonic quickly dashed over it like it was just regular land. More boosting sent Sonic speeding through a narrow pathway, and eventually landed him on a path where the walls were quickly closing in on him. He began to speed through it, but soon realized a problem. Slowing himself to a screeching halt, Sonic quickly turned around and sprinted over to Chip, who was starting to slow down immensely – most likely because of his injured wing. Sonic grabbed his wrist tightly, and boosted him and Chip through the pathway, the walls just about ready to smash the two.

"S-Sonic-" Chip began to shout out. Sonic quickly increased his speed sending the two hurling into another pathway, just barely making it through without getting smashed. Chip let out a sigh of relief and braced himself, expecting to be let go of, but surprisingly, Sonic didn't loosen his grip on the fairy's wrist. Instead he held onto it, and pulled him into his now somewhat warm chest as Sonic homing attacked a couple robots and landed safely on a rail. He grinded over to a new pathway, all the while keeping Chip secure in his arm, and continued through another narrow cave-like pathway. Bouncing himself up on a spring, Sonic continued to homing attack his way to another rail, landing on it safely and grinding around a loop and onto actual land again.

More dash panels sent the two sprinting through the area where Sonic dodged a projectile robot and stomped his way down to a deeper level than before. The hedgehog couldn't help but wonder how deep they had actually gone, but pushed the thought out of his head as he landed in another cave-like area. He boosted through the path, keeping Chip close to him so he wouldn't fall off, then spotted what looked like the end. Sighing, he boosted himself over to it, somewhat sad that it was over. He skidded to a stop, the collapsed on his back, cooling himself off from the small amount of heat he had obtained. Sonic let go of Chip, who rolled out of his arms and onto his back as well.

"Good job, Chip – you're getting better at keeping up with me," he congratulated. Chip rolled over and gave him a questioned look.

"...I am?" he asked, breathing heavily.

"Well, yeah. You went pretty fast for having an injured wing, and you were nowhere _near_ as far back from me as you were in Apotos." Sonic gave a smile, then sat up. "Speaking of which, how's your wing doing?"

"Mm.. it's a little better," Chip admitted, getting up. He took a small glance around, then quickly raced over to a small glint on the ground. Coming back with it, he handed it to Sonic with a small smile. "Before you forget again."

Sonic took the item into his hand and examined it. It was the tablet fragment of Holoska adorned with a red jewel – admittedly, he had almost forgotten about it again. Thankfully though, Chip seemed to remember to look for it every time he had forgotten. And yet, Chip still didn't remember the first thing about who he was. Sonic smiled to himself and got off the ground. This was going to be a long and difficult journey, but most definitely an enjoyable one. Giving a smirk, he turned to Chip and spoke.

"C'mon Chip – we gotta go back to the professor."

* * *

again, sorry about the mishap with the tablet fragment - i'll make sure it won't happen again.

well, i was somewhat antsy about writing this part -

for one thing, you all know how much i hate writing day stages. admittedly, this one's a lot better than the Apotos one, but still.

and for another,

this is my favorite Sonic Unleashed day stage for the wii version. i did NOT want to screw it up.

but i think i did decent. it wasn't COMPLETE crap. but still.

please review


	9. Search for the Elder

Neither Sonic nor Chip knew what they were going to do to get back to the professor. With Tails' plane functioning horribly in the freezing weather and Holoska still not restored, the two had no idea how to get back. Sonic personally didn't mind it too much, as he had taken a liking to Holoska, but it put a huge bump in his road. They couldn't continue their journey, and their time was easily lost. So they reluctantly stayed in Holoska for the time being. They stayed in the village, with the family. When they returned from the shrine, the two were greeted personally by Sarianna and the rather guilty looking Jari-Thure, who had apparently finally been found. Sonic honestly couldn't help but stiffle a laugh when he witnessed Sarianna yell profusely at her husband for being so cowardly compared to the hedgehog, but Chip just seemed oblivious to the whole thing.

They waited in the village. What they were waiting for, they weren't very sure. A way back to Spagonia, perhaps. Nothing was coming, though, and the day was slowly turning into night. Like he said he would, Sonic snapped some pictures for Tails to kill the time, and got some food for himself and Chip as they waited. Eventually though, the two had gotten bored. Sonic was almost tempted to go through the moon door while they were still there, but decided against it, as they hadn't gotten the cue to go in yet. Sonic sighed and nearly fell asleep as he leaned against an igloo, staring ahead at the fire being made. Nothing made a sound except for the fire crackling and Sonic's constant sighs.

"Do you think we're gonna get out of here?" Chip questioned quietly, breaking the silence. Sonic let his tired eyelids fall for a moment, then answered.

"We will... somehow..." he replied, sighing.

"But... how?" Chip continued, flying atop of Sonic's head. Sonic couldn't really answer, as he didn't know. He shrugged and slid to the ground, taking a seat in the freezing cold snow.

"I dunno, Chip. But we will..." Sighing, Sonic nearly fell asleep as he looked out into the distance, waiting for something to happen. It was extremely quiet in the village. And dark, too. Nighttime had fallen completely over Holoska, and Sonic was feeling much warmer in his werehog form than he had before. Though he still wasn't very comforted by the fact that they might stay in Holoska longer than he had planned. Admittedly, he liked Holoska – to him, it was a very fun place to see and explore – but he couldn't imagine staying in it for very long. They still had other places to see, other pieces of the world to explore and restore. Sonic rested his head against the igloo, and let out another sigh. He allowed Chip to crawl into his arms and hugged him close, warming the two up. Out he gazed, out into the distance, which wasn't much because of a wall of ice blocking his view. He looked upwards instead, and could make out some stars and the Northern Lights shining in the sky. The sight of the velvet black sky illuminated by the bright glowing stars above made Sonic almost close his eyes for a long awaited sleep, but the faintest sound of blades whirring stopped him. Opening his eyes and looking up into the sky, he could just barely make out what he hadn't expected to see in a long time. Gasping, he got up off the snow and stood up, still staring up at the sky.

"Tails!" he shouted out with a smile as clear as day. He spotted Tails wave at him from the Tornado and fly the plane over to the outer perimeters of the village to land. Shaking Chip a little to wordlessly inform him to wake up and pay attention to what was going on, he quickly raced up the pathway out of the village. Sonic skidded to a stop right in front of the Tornado, a smile lighting up his face.

"Hey Sonic!" Tails shouted out, waving to him. Sonic met his gaze with a happy but surprised look on his face.

"H-how'd you get here?" he questioned. Tails jumped out of his plane, dipping his feet into the deep snow.

"The professor helped me tune the plane's engine up so that could withstand the cold weather better," he answered. "But it wastes the fuel – we gotta skip going back to Spagonia and get to Chun-nan now!"

Sonic looked at him with a questioned expression in his eyes. "Chun-nan? Is that the next temple to go to?" he asked while climbing into the back seat in the plane. Tails flew into the pilot's seat after him, turning to the werehog.

"Yeah – the professor told me to just pick you guys up and go there without visiting him. Let's get going!" he commanded, kicking the plane into gear again. Running the plane down the runway of snow he had made, the Tornado took off the ground, and into the air, leaving Holoska behind. On the way to Chun-nan, Sonic handed Tails the pictures he took, though almost didn't bother giving them to him as the Tornado was now liable to withstand the cold temperature the next time they were sent there. When they arrived, it was nighttime, but apparently the sun had just set as they arrived. It didn't look too dark then – there was a small line of sunlight still shining in the distance. Shaded lanterns hanging from the rooftops lighted up the area, illuminating the night.

While Tails stayed in the plane, prepping it for their next leave, Sonic and Chip explored the village, eyes wide with amazement. As usual, at Chip's request, they got something to eat before they continued their journey. Though, walking across a bridge built over a small stretch of water, the two were suddenly stopped by two kids about the same age – twins, perhaps – sitting on a bench and looking at them with curious eyes. Both turned to them, but the girl started talking first.

"I've never seen you guys around here before – are you tourists?" she asked with a perky smile. Sonic shrugged slightly, though he still wasn't necessarily in the mood for kids.

"Egh – I guess you could say that," he answered, an obvious fatigue in his voice.

"What're your names?"

"I'm Sonic – Sonic the..." Hedgehog? Werehog? Sonic honestly didn't know what to call himself anymore. "Egh, just leave it as Sonic."

The girl nodded, then turned to Chip. "And you?"

Chip looked at her shyly, then answered. "Well, um... I don't know what my real name is, but everybody just calls me Chip."

"You don't know who you are?" the boy finally spoke up, turning to them. Chip shook his head with an obvious tinge of sadness suppressed in his eyes. Everyone stayed silent for a while, until the girl spoke up again.

"Well, maybe my grampa can help you!" she piped up. "He's a doctor and all of his medicines have worked so far! He hasn't found a single person he can't cure!" Chip's eyes widened with amazement. His sad expression was suddenly lifted and changed into a rather excited one as he turned to Sonic and lightly shook his arm. Though, some realization struck in for the girl, as her happy expression quickly changed into a more disappointed one. "Well... if he was here, then he could help..."

The girl didn't raise here head up to meet Chip's worried eyes, and just sniffled. "He's been gone a really long time now, and nobody knows where he is..." She sounded like she was about to burst into tears. "And without him around, we have no one to play with..."

The girl raised her hands up to her face and buried it in them. Sonic couldn't really tell if she was crying or not, as she stayed silent, but he was beaten to comforting her by Chip. He hopped off of Sonic's head and onto the girl's lap, looking up to her. "Hey – don't cry! We'll find your grampa for you!" Something Sonic honestly wished Chip had never said. They were here to restore the continent, not play Hide'n'Seek with the kids' grandfather. But he didn't say anything and kept listening to what Chip had to say. "Uhh... Ya want some chocolate?" Of course – 'want some chocolate?' was now officially deemed Chip's tagline. The fairy pulled out an already opened bar of chocolate and held it out in front of her face. The girl lowered her hands from her face and stared at him with puffy eyes. Shyly, she took it from him and broke off half of it, handing it to the boy, who was eying it hungrily. She sniffed and wiped her nose.

"You... you will?" She questioned. Chip nodded with a smile on his face.

"Well yeah! We have time, don't we?" Chip turned to Sonic, who was almost about to disagree to the whole thing, but didn't get the chance as Chip interrupted him. "We'll get you grampa back! I promise!"

While the girl obtained the most amazed, excited, and cheerful expression anyone could possibly have, Sonic just glared at Chip with eyes of daggers. The fairy didn't really seem to notice, though, and continued to reassure the girl that they'd do everything he said he would do. Honestly, Sonic didn't mind attempting to find their grandfather – it was the fact that they already had enough things to do, and they didn't need to play games with this family. Before he said anything else, Sonic grabbed Chip's wrist and yanked him away from the kids. He squirmed a little, but quickly gave up and flew beside Sonic to the next villager in their path. On the way, Sonic couldn't have stopped himself from questioning was on his mind.

"Ok, what the hell was that, Chip?" he questioned quiet enough so that none of the villagers would hear him, but loud enough so that he sounded as frustrated as he was. Chip just looked at him, confusion clear in his eyes. "I understand that you wanted to cheer the kid up – in fact, I'm happy you did, 'cause I'm not really in the mood for kids – but _why_ did you have to say that we'd find their grandfather, huh? We have enough stuff on our hands!"

Chip looked on at the werehog, a small amount of fear creeping up inside of him. "A-are you mad at me, Sonic?" Sonic sighed, but shook his head tiredly.

"No... I'm just... I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm stressed... I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in.. I don't even know _how_ many days. I'm just wiped out, I guess..." Sonic raised a hand to his head and rubbed his eyes while Chip just looked at the ground apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Sonic... I didn't know what I said would make you mad..." Sonic didn't say anything, but continued over to a short old lady sitting on a bench, walking up to her. She turned to them, then gave a small smile.

"Are you two visitors?" She questioned. Sonic nodded, staying silent. "Unfortunately, your timing is terrible."

"Why? What's wrong?" Sonic asked, frowning.

"Well, my husband, the elder of this village had left in search of our village treasure, but has not returned for quite some time. And nobody can seem to find him." Sonic sighed and put a hand to his chin – apparently the missing grandfather thing was a pretty big deal. He started to wonder whether this guy was going to be an important part in his journey, or if he was worth the time. Sighing again, he ignored Chip's questioned stare and spoke for the both of them.

"Um... if he's on the way to where we're going.. I... guess we can look for him, if you want..." he said, yawning. Sonic ignored the change from Chip's questioned look to a rather shocked one, and continued to listen to the lady, who was also quite taken aback.

"You would do that?" Sonic nodded tiredly, rubbing his eyes. The lady reached into her pocket and pulled a blue glinting object out. "Well, in that case... you better take this." She handed the object to Sonic, who immediately recognized it as the blue moon tablet. He sighed tiredly – it wasn't necessarily the actual nighttime adventure ahead that bothered him (though, he'd gladly take daytime over it any day), it was the fatigue that overcame him which didn't make him feel up to the task. Rubbing his eyes, he took the tablet into his hands and walked away, the lady wishing the two good luck as they went. But before Sonic could reach the top of the hill leading to the shrine, Chip stopped him, flying right in front of him, blocking his path.

"Now what was **that**, Sonic? I thought you said we weren't gonna look for that guy!" he pointed out with a confused frown on his face.

"I changed my mind; we'll look for him if he's _on the way_. Otherwise, he's gonna have to wait until we finish here," Sonic explained, yawning shortly afterward. But Chip just continued to stare. "Listen – I'm tired, my mind's not working like it should, I'm making decisions that I wouldn't normally make – we _will_ look for the elder, just... not right now..."

Sonic didn't say another word as he pushed Chip aside and continued up to the shrine. Chip followed silently, still a bit questioned about the situation, but decided not to ask about it again. They entered the shrine, and expectantly, Sonic still stayed in his werehog form as he went. Chip flew ahead of him, taking the moon tablet from Sonic and placing it into the glowing moon door. It momentarily shined brightly, illuminating the room. Giving a long, deep sigh, Sonic walked into the hallway, wonder what would lie ahead.

* * *

Deciding to go back to his jump-in-and-howl routine, Sonic stepped forward down the pathway, taking a quick look around. The area was surrounded by water, but was decorated by many ancient-looking temples and colorful trees that held bounds of pink flowers. Sonic smiled at the scenery, then walked into outskirts of the first temple. Giving a small glance at Chip, he could easily tell the fairy was amazed by the architecture and the designs, and well, everything else.

"Like it here, Chip?" he asked, already knowing the answer. The fairy nodded, his eyes wide with pure amazement. "Well, savor it now – 'cause it's about to get rampaged by Dark Gaia spawn."

The statement immediately snapped Chip out of his trance. He flew close to Sonic, looking out for the monsters. Walking up a small flight of stairs, Sonic spotted some dinos, who immediately started barking at him as soon as he walked close enough to their sights, and pushed Chip to the side lightly as he charged right at them. He swung his protracted claws at two of the closest ones, dazing them, and clawed each of them until they were no more. He turned to the others - who began charging at him and ramming their heads into the werehog's legs, almost sending him off balance – and quickly swung his claws at each of them, knocking them away. Once they were gone, Sonic gave a silent nod to Chip to let him know that there was nothing else around.

The two walked forward, and both spotted a couple boxes thrown to the side of the temple building, most likely signaling more fighting. Chip stayed back as Sonic cringed a little, picking one of the boxes up cautiously. As expected, three small nightmares erupted from the ground, and Sonic wasted no time in throwing a box at one. Hitting one of them square in the face, he picked up the other box and threw it at the other, dazing it as well. Sonic swung his arms at all three at once, hitting them all with a couple swings. Eventually, they all dispersed, but Sonic could spot another pair of boxes up ahead. He half expected there to be a couple of bees up ahead, but to his surprise (and inner delight), there was nothing but a couple nightmares walking towards him. One of the two monsters cartwheeled itself into Sonic, but the werehog quickly smacked it right to the ground before it could hit him. Though, the other took that as an opening, and slammed one of it's arms into Sonic, landing a hit on him. The werehog stumbled back a little, but eventually swung an arm at the nightmare, knocking it to the ground. A few more hits, and the monsters were gone, vanished. Sonic noticed Chip come out of his hiding place and fly over to him, and walked on, keeping an ear out to listen to what the fairy had to say.

"Man – they'd ruin a perfectly good place just to try and stop us, huh?" he retorted with a frown. Sonic grunted in response – the whole thing was to be expected, as the dark creatures were everywhere nowadays, but it kind of made him sick to his stomach that they would infest such a perfect place just to stop them. Shaking his head, Sonic started dashing down the path on four feet instead of two, making the trip go by quicker. Though, he came to a screeching halt and nearly fell over as he rounded a corner and spotted the path ending into what looked like some pretty deep water covered in lily pads and water lilies, and a couple well-placed rocks that made up a pathway to get to the other route ahead. Taking in a large amount of breath and letting it slip out as a sigh, Sonic carefully jumped onto one, making sure not to slip and fall off. He jumped off it, and onto another rock, and eventually made it over to the other pathway safely, Chip following closely behind. Sonic gave a small smile of relief, and continued to dash ahead, but eventually ran right past a couple of nightmares. The werehog let out a small grunt and backed up a little, greeting each of the monsters with his fists in their faces. He turned to some others coming up to him, and gave them the same treatment. One of them managed to strike Sonic in the back of his head, but he quickly pushed it aside and continued to swat them with his claws until they all dispersed.

Sonic called Chip down and breathed in heavily, giving a rather large yawn and quickly rubbing his tired eyes. "Are you ok, Sonic? You don't look too good," Chip acknowledged, flying down to meet his eyes.

"I'm just tired – I'll be fine, don't worry." Sonic got down on all fours and dashed down the path, leaping off at the end of it. He nearly regretted his actions however, as there wasn't anything but water below, and quickly extended his arms until they reached something – a moving pole. He sprung back onto it, clinging it and breathing heavily. "Wow... _that_ could've been dangerous!"

He gave out a small chuckle, and carefully reached out for the next pole, grabbing onto it quickly before it moved away. Once close enough to the dock, Sonic jumped off and landed safely, continuing his path. He jumped over some broken pathways and eventually leaped down to the bottom level, as the top level was too far away for him to reach. Not letting it get to him, Sonic continued over to the end of the path, then looked over to his right, which held another path, most likely broken off from what he was already on. One of the harmless bat creatures appeared, giving him a way across, and Sonic quickly took that opportunity to swing himself over. Landing safely, he dashed over to another temple, giving a small look around.

"Hey Chip, I think we might almost be done!" he shouted out, clinging onto an upwards pole.

"Already? Wow! That was fast!" Chip replied, catching up to him. Sonic climbed up the pole and jumped off onto the building, which led into a top level with two paths. He glanced at each one carefully, then decided to go down the right path. The path led to a small room with colorful stream-banners hanging from the ceiling and a lever in the corner. Chip flew ahead, looking around. "Hey Sonic, there's a door just above here! Maybe the lever activates it?" he questioned, pointing down at it. Though, as soon as he reached out to touch it, a hoard of nightmares came up from the ground, scaring the living crap out of him. Chip flew up the the ceiling, avoiding them as Sonic quickly took action and began to fight them. He took on the small nightmares first, as they were the closest, and gave them all the swing of his claws, knocking each of them down. He continued to beat them until they died, then turned to the bigger nightmares, who expectantly hadn't moved from their spots. One of them ran over to him, and Sonic was quick to slam it back. He beat it down until it was no more, then turned to the other one. It backed up into a corner, which Sonic couldn't help but think that it was a rather wimpy move, and the werehog rammed himself into it, dazing it. Swinging his claws at it rapidly, he threw it up in the air and smacked it down, ending it's presence. Sonic looked around, looked around for any more creatures, but found none, and turned back to the lever. With all the strength he really had left, he pulled it over to the opposite side, expectantly opening up the door above him. There was no visible way of getting up, so Sonic decided to try the other pathway. He dashed back and entered it, which led to an upper path complete with sideways poles allowing him to cross the gap. Sonic swung himself over all three poles and landed on the other side of the temple, which he presumed to be the end of the stage. Though, looking around, he saw no actual exit – just a path leading to the next area.

"Wha- where's the exit?" he questioned, looking around frantically. Chip joined him in the search, but quickly gave up.

"I don't think there _is_ one, Sonic," he replied, a bit scared at what his friend might say or do.

"Whadaya mean there's no exit?"

Chip sighed. "I guess Apotos and Spagonia went easy on you.." he mumbled. Sonic stopped his franticness and gave out a long sigh.

"Whoever the creators of this place are sure picked the wrong day to neglect to put an actual exit in this place..." he grunted while rubbing his eyes, continuing over to the next area.

* * *

sorry it took me so long to update - i've been busy. next chapter will come much faster, i promise!

well, this isn't my favorite chapter, but it's important, so... life goes on - we'll just have to live with it

please review!


	10. Night of Nightmare

Told ya it'd come faster. anyway, enjoy

* * *

Sonic still couldn't believe that he had to go through all the night areas back to back without any sanctuaries in between. It was a bit overwhelming – normally, he wouldn't have minded it, but with his current state, the last thing he needed was to go on through the whole night. He gave a quiet but noticeable grunt as he walked out into the stage, not even bothering to do his howl. He was on a concrete level placed on top of a small mountain of sheer rock, but a part of the fence bordering it was broken. Sonic looked down at it – at the bottom was a pathway with surprisingly no water in sight; just a green pathway leading into the forest with some fences every here and there. He hopped down quickly, but as he was running through the path, he was greeted with the sight of wizard-looking nightmares wielding magical staffs emerging from the ground. With a sigh, he jumped up to the step they were on, and exhaustively began a battle with them.

As soon as he landed on the next step, more nightmares came out. But the extra help didn't stop him – Sonic raced over to them, claws in full swing. He managed to land a few hits on one of the wizards, but it warped away from him before he could do it anymore harm. One of the nightmares snuck up behind him and slapped its arm right into Sonic's back, making him stumble a little. With a grunt of frustration, he swung his arms at all of the creatures, landing hits on each of them. Another one managed to hit the werehog again, but he pushed it aside and kept hurling his fists at them. Most of the nightmares died, but one of the wizards warped away, and the other swung its staff at Sonic, knocking him straight on the head. Sonic grasped the top of his head in pain for a second, and swung his free arm out at the wizard and grabbed its robe. Clutching onto it tightly, he swung the wizard behind him and let it slam to the ground, then swung it back over in front of him, repeating the process about three more times. With small shockwaves emitting from the impact the wizard was making with the ground, some of the living nightmares seemed to get a little damaged as well. With one last swing of his arm, Sonic grabbed onto the wizard's robe with both hands and jumped up in the air, slamming it down to the ground with all his force.

As he landed, he turned to the other living nightmares, which more had erupted from the ground on the next step up. Sonic finished with the nightmares on the step he was on, and jumped up onto the next. He charged over to the nightmares, but was slammed down by the living wizard's staff once again. He almost couldn't get up with the pain that staff had put on him – it wasn't nearly as bad as the bees, but he could tell they were going to be quite an annoyance later on. He got back up onto his feet, and gave each of the nightmares around him a full smack down, including the wizard, and eventually killed all of them. Breathing heavily, he spotted Chip flying over to him, looking at him worriedly. With the sudden mini-war, Sonic had almost forgotten about the fairy even being with him.

"Are you ok, Sonic? That looked like it hurt!" he called out, attempting to look into his eyes. Sonic put a hand on his sore head, and gripped it tightly in pain.

"Ugh... yeah. I'm fine, let's go!" Sonic replied, dashing over to the gate alit with lanterns. He began dashing through the dark pathway, but was all of a sudden stopped by swinging pendulums. Looking at it with keen eyes, he glanced back at Chip and pulled him close, burying him safely in his arms. With keen timing, he jumped right past it, and rounded a corner. Another pendulum swung in front of them, but Sonic pushed it aside and dashed right past it. He looked ahead cautiously before letting go of Chip, then began a light dash over what looked like a very unstable floor panel. As soon as he stepped foot onto it, he could feel it shaking. As quick as he could, he sprinted over to the other side and jumped off, just barely making it off as the panel fell and revealed a large bed of spikes. Breathing heavily, he turned to Chip.

"Jeez, Chun-nan's great, but _man_ - I think the people here hate tourists!" he called out, wiping a small dribble of sweat from his forehead.

"No kidding! Imagine falling into that!" Chip retorted, looking back at it. Sonic grabbed his wrist and continued on, but was once again stopped by pendulums – two at the same place, this time. He clutched Chip close to his chest so he wouldn't get hit, and with a carefully placed jump, he made it to the other side without a scratch that he hadn't already made. He let go of the fairy and walked over to a dock to other side of a mountain that looked like it had been broken. He put a hand to his head and scratched it gently.

"Ya think I can make that jump?" he questioned. Chip nodded.

"Of course! You're Sonic the Hedgehog – you can do **anything**! Even climbing that waterfall over there!"

"Say what, now?"

"Yeah, see?" Chip flew over ahead of him and pointed into the distance. Sure enough, there was a tall waterfall blocking his way, and Sonic was sure that he'd have to climb it to proceed. He grunted in frustration, but pushed it aside as he leaped over the broken bridge, landing safely on the other side. But then there came the hard part. As he walked over the next bridge, he examined his next path – or lack of one. Ahead, there was almost nothing but water. Only a few poles and short side paths led the way over to the waterfall. Taking a deep breath, he jumped over to the first pole and clung on. The next pole was moving somehow, which made his trip harder, but he managed to clutch onto it just as it was moving back. As soon as it stopped, he let go and clutched onto the next, then jumped back onto solid ground again. A harmless bat nightmare appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and Sonic spent no time thinking before he jumped and clutched on tightly to it, lightly swinging himself back and forth as his nails dug into the bat's flesh. He reached a good enough distance and jumped off, clinging onto the pole in front of him. He turned around and leaped off, once again on solid ground. Sonic looked up at the waterfall with questioned eyes, then turned back to Chip.

"Do you _really_ I can make that?" In his regular hedgehog form, he could climb a waterfall with no problem, but his werehog form was a completely different story. He still wasn't completely used to it yet, and climbing waterfalls weren't exactly his preferred method of testing himself. Though, Chip seemed to have quite the opposite feeling about it, and nodded.

"Yeah, of course you can," he stated while yawning lightly. Apparently he was feeling fatigue as well. Giving a rather deep breath, Sonic glared right at the waterfall with determined eyes.

"Ok then – let's do this."

With a dashing start, he began to run up the rock path and stopped right at his first jump. Thankfully, there was a ledge to grab onto, so he did so and practically bungee jumped onto the ledge with his stretchy arms. He continued upwards carefully and clung onto another ledge. Pulling himself up, he walked onwards and caught sight of the first pole, which he was somewhat questioned on why anyone would put it there. Pushing the though out of his mind, however, he gripped onto it and climbed up, and without thinking, he jumped off and unconsciously grabbed onto a bat who happened to be flying the opposite way as soon as he reached the top of the pole. Sonic lightly swung himself back and forth until he reached another pole and clutched onto it, climbing up. As soon as he reached the top, he turned and let go, and quickly grabbed hold of a sideways pole hanging out from the waterfall. He could feel the mist coming off of the waterfall from being so close to it and was almost tempted just to hang there for a little while and relax himself, but he just didn't feel too safe there. He swung himself carefully over to the next pole, then the next, and eventually grabbed onto another upwards pole, almost losing his grip from a rather bad jump. Pushing the thought out of his mind, he climbed up and just missed another bat as soon as he reached the top of the pole. He looked at Chip, who was hovering closely.

"I hate waterfalls..." he stated dully as he waited for the bat to come back. Chip's face turned with a state of shock.

"How could you not like waterfalls?" he gasped. "They're so pretty!"

The bat came back, and Sonic almost didn't bother replying. "Chip – looking at a waterfall is one thing; climbing it is another," he stated as he swung back and forth until he reached another pole. As he climbed it, he noticed that there was no actual way around the waterfall, but a small path behind it. Carefully clinging onto the wall, he shuffled over to the other side until he reached another pole. He clung onto it, and as he climbed upward, Sonic could see the top. Slightly joyed, slightly relieved, he jumped off the pole without hesitance and carefully made his was across a log placed over the water. Making his way towards a small cliff, he couldn't help but look over at what he had just climbed with a sense of accomplishment.

"Ha! I **conquered** you, waterfall!" he shouted in an accomplished tone. "Ok, let's go before I do something reckless." He jumped over to the cliff beside him and clung to the wall as he made his way to actual land again.

"See Sonic? I told you that you could do it," Chip stated in a tone that wasn't as excited as Sonic had thought it would be. Perhaps he was just tired. Sonic continued on and begun to see flames flickering in the distance, blocking the way through. To his right, though, he spotted a barrel with a water symbol on it, obviously containing water. He picked one up and tossed it right at the fire, putting it out quite quickly. He walked into the room with Chip following slowly, and grabbed onto a nob on the wall, swinging himself up to the top. Sonic pulled himself up onto the top, and as soon as he stepped foot onto the floor, nightmares and dinos erupted from the ground. Although kind of happy about this, Sonic was somewhat confused as to why there wasn't much enemies in Chun-nan – or at least this area. Though, he didn't question it, and made a beeline for the closest enemy, slashing it right in the face. Out of the corner of his eye, he could spot Chip slowly flying up to the building on his right, avoiding the fight, but his straying attention led to some dinos ramming their heads right into him. Somewhat set off balance, Sonic slashed them all away and continued to attack them all until they died. More came out, and Sonic gave them the same treatment. Some of them landed a few hits onto him, which were getting more and more difficult to take as the night progressed – perhaps because of his fatigue. He pushed all of the nightmares away from him, and began to slash his claws at each of them until they were reduced to nothing but dust.

Sonic looked around quickly – thankfully, he saw no more enemies around, and he slowly walked over to the building Chip was at. The fairy didn't make a sound or even come down after the last creature had been defeated, which somewhat questioned him. "Chip? Hey Chip – they're gone, you can come down now."

Still no reply. Sonic scratched his head and grabbed onto the ledge on the building with question in his eyes. He got up and spotted the fairy lying on the floor, not moving except for slow, steady breathing. Sonic first gasped, quickly getting the idea that one of the nightmares must've attacked him when he wasn't looking, but soon realized that wasn't the case. He was just sleeping.

"Chip? Chip, wake up!" he commanded in a more forceful tone rather than a worried one. Chip didn't reply – just got into a more comfortable position and continued to snore softly. Sonic picked the imp up by his tail and shook him, though, it didn't really seem to have any effect. The fairy was dead asleep, and wasn't waking up anytime soon. Sonic continued to stare with frustration, then gave up and climbed back down to the level below and continued to walked into a dark room with Chip in his arms. The dark atmosphere was taunting, and Sonic desperately just wanted to fall asleep in it for the whole night, maybe even longer. The werehog walked over to a dark corner and slumped down to the ground, too exhausted to continue.

He waited for Chip to wake up, every now and then his eyes would slip closed and he would almost fall asleep. Constant yawns escaped his mouth, and he almost found himself slumping over in exhaustion. About thirty minutes passed, and still no sound from Chip, and that thirty minutes soon turned into an hour. Somewhere along the line, Sonic couldn't take it anymore, and let his eyelids fall, and didn't bother to raise them back up. He eventually fell asleep as well, unaware of the kicks and light whimpers coming from the fairy.

_'It was dark out – and rainy, too. Endless drops __of water came pouring down from the skies as streaks of blinding white lightning flashed through the night. Chip looked around, scared, and examined his surroundings. He didn't know __**exactly**__ where he was – perhaps still in Chun-nan, but very deep in the forest. With a frightened look in his eyes, he pushed the wet hair out of his face and stumbled in fear as another flash of lightning lit up the sky. He gasped and glanced around frantically – where was Sonic? He didn't see him anywhere! Broken gasps of fear escaped his lips as he stumbled back, nearly tripping over his own feet. Chip looked around again, breathing in heavily. Thunder roared through the night, becoming the only thing audible besides the pelting rain. Though, Chip's large ears picked up some kind of small, muffled sound through the air – a rustling of a bush. Gasping, he looked around again, in all possible directions, growing more and more frightened by the second. In a flash of nearby lightning, he could've sworn he saw a dark shadow moving silently, though he couldn't tell what it was._

_ "S-S-Sonic?" he stuttered out with chattering teeth, which he couldn't decide were a result from his fear or the cold air. Though not nearly as freezing as Holoska, the area was still pretty cold – perhaps because of the pouring rain. A large shiver ran down Chip's spine as he heard another rustle, and he quickly turned around in fear. Though, he still saw nothing. With a couple strikes of lightning and booms of thunder in the background, Chip didn't feel so safe anymore. He __shook and shivered, and looked for any sign of a living person roaming around without him knowing, breathing in heavily. Suddenly, as a blinding flash of lightning struck nearby, something – or someone- tackled Chip to the ground, thunder booming loudly. He fell to the ground with a yelp of surprise, and was pinned down on his back. He tried desperately to push the thing on top of him off, or even figure out what it even was. Another flash of lightning lighted up the area for a second, enough time for Chip to get a glance on the being. The creature was rather small, about his own size, perhaps a few inches bigger. Large white fangs hung out of his mouth, much larger than Sonic's. Flaming purple, messy hair topped the creature's head. It had a dark maroon shade of fur, almost scaly looking. But what really got to him was was the creature's eyes – both snake-like eyes with a seemingly glowing shade of green, and an extra large green eye in the middle of its forehead. Even without the lightning illuminating the area, the creature's eyes were still clearly visible, gleaming with an evil shine. Chip gasped at the sight, and again tried to pull away, until the creature started to speak._

_ "Long time, no see... Light," he spoke in a demonic voice which sent shivers down Chip's spine. Though his attention quickly turned to the strange name he had been called. Light? It questioned him greatly. He was tempted to ask about it, but instead pushed the thought out of his mind and threw the creature of of him – he __was quite light, about his own weight, maybe a little heavier. Once he was free, he got up off the ground and began running in the opposite way. But in another loud boom of thunder, Chip was tackled right back down to the damp ground with a yelp. He was quite surprised at how fast the creature could move, but paid little mind to it as he tried to push himself off the ground. Though, he was weighed down by the creature on top of him, and could feel his large claws digging into his arms. Chip gasped in and clenched his eyes shut, but soon opened them back up to finally speak out about what had been on his mind._

_ "Who... who are you?" he questioned in a meep voice. The creature's claws digging into his arms suddenly loosened a little, and Chip could feel his gleaming green eyes glaring daggers into the back of his skull. He felt himself being pulled off the ground and was forced to turn around, forced to look right back into those dreaded eyes._

_ "What's the matter, Light?" the creature questioned, calling him that name again. Chip cringed at the sinister tone of voice. "Don't remember me?" Those three words kept replaying over and over again in his head. He had known him before? Chip had no memory of him whatsoever! He gasped silently. Suddenly the creature stood up and gripped onto Chip's blood stained bandages that covered his scars caused by Sonic, and pulled him up to his level._

_ "I'm you greatest enemy," The creature spoke again. He pushed Chip away with such force that he almost toppled over. But the creature was quick to catch him before he fell to the ground again. "I'm the creature that haunts your dreams." He pushed Chip away again, this time with such force that he **couldn't** stay on his feet. He tripped and fell to the ground again with a yelp, and tried to get back up, but something erupted from the ground he was near, surrounding him. Chip couldn't tell what it was, as it was too dark to see, and they only appeared as black shadows in the night._

_ "I'm the one who makes your nightmares become real," the creature's voice seemed to grow more demonic, scarier, every time he spoke. The shadows around Chip finally grew into something recognizable, and he gasped at what they revealed themselves to be. _

_ Nightmares._

_ They were the small ones, but there were at least five of them, and Chip had no way of defending himself. The nightmares surrounded him and all took one of his limbs into their clawed hands, refraining him from moving. He struggled to get free with a few small screams escaping his mouth, but was unable to move. Though he struggled even more when he spotted one nightmare seemingly crawl over to him and pull down his bandages, revealing his scars. Chip yelped in pain as the nightmare dug its claw into the top scar and slashed right through it, making it bleed once more. It did that to each of his scars until all of them were bleeding like Chip was just receiving them for the first time. The nightmares finally backed away and let go of him, then evaporated into that all too familiar purple gas. But instead of disappearing like normal, all the gas strands formed into one large stream, and all spiraled right into the creature's chest. He closed all three of his eyes as soon as he received it, and his features started to change, almost transform in a way. The tips of his ears seemed to form some blue ice-like crest on them. Both his fangs and his claws grew larger, his claws also turning blue at the tips. His leathery wings grew larger with a mix of a purple and blue color, and his fur turned even more scaly than before. Once he opened his eyes again, which were now an even brighter shade of green, Chip clutched his bleeding chest and attempted to again run away. Though it wasn't very long before the creature caught up to him and grabbed him. With a small stumbling twist, Chip gasped as he felt the creature's claws curl around the back of his neck and pull him over to a small pool of water in the ground created by the pouring rain._

_ The creature suddenly knelt down in front of the pool and thrusted Chip's head right into the water. Chip immediately started panicking, air escaping his nose and mouth as he struggled to raise his head back to the surface. Though, the creature had a rather large force pushing down onto him, making it impossible for him to get back to air on his own. Water filled his lungs every time he accidentally gasped inwards, and he could already feel his chest seemingly burning. Suddenly, he felt the creature pull his head out of the water. As soon as he could, Chip coughed the water in his lungs and took in as much air as he could, but soon let it all back out in a short scream as the creature forced his head back under. Chip nearly lost all the air he had as he struggled more than before to get back up. He lungs were already screaming for air, and he was almost forced to let out all he had left. Bubbles engulfed his face, and he could feel himself almost about to lose consciousness. But before he could, the creature pulled him up once again for air. Chip coughed and sputtered, and took in deep gasps of breath._

_ "You're much weaker than I remembered," the creature retorted with a voice that could make babies cry. "Pathetic."_

_ He tossed Chip to the ground, who continued to cough violently, trying to regain his lost breath. The creature walked right over to him again and glanced down at him with those god-awful eyes. "I shouldn't be surprised, though. You've always been weak." Chip gulped._

_ "But I don't even know who you are!" he called out, but soon regretted it as the creature suddenly reached his clawed hand over to Chip's loosened bandages and pulled him up to eye level. He looked like he was about so say something about his relation towards him, but commented on something else._

_ "Time's running out, Light," he growled. "The man who awakened us has found a way to resurrect me. It's only a matter of time before I become whole and complete." The creature kept his grip on Chip's bandages, and pulled out something from behind his back. "And when that day comes, nothing will stop me... not even you or that pesky friend of yours..."_

_ Chip immediately knew who he was talking about. 'Sonic...' he thought to himself silently. A flash of lightning struck in the sky, making everything a bit more visible for a second. The thing the creature pulled out revealed itself to be a large silver dagger with dried blood stained on it, most likely having been used before. Something was dripping off of it, and somehow Chip knew it wasn't rain. A small drop of the substance fell from the tip of the dagger to a small plant on the ground. The substance sunk into the plant, and in a few short seconds, the plant grew black and withered. Chip gulped, and looked back at the creature with fearful eyes._

_ "You remember this, Light?" the creature questioned, knowing the answer already. "It has stabbed over a million people's hearts, and the poison killed them all. It's slow moving poison, so its recipient can suffer through the pain, but chances are they will die either way." The creature dropped Chip, then stood up and put his clawed foot onto the fairy's neck and pressed down, cutting off his air. "And you're next." As Chip struggled to move his foot off, the creature raised the dagger over his head and got ready to strike forward._

_ "Go to hell, Light," he growled. Chip gulped. "And take your friend with you..."_

_ The creature swung the poison coated dagger down fast, and Chip barely had any time to gasp as he felt the blade penetrate his skin, the poison dripping into his blood...'_

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

A scream rang out, breaking the silence and waking Sonic up. Sonic abruptly opened his tired eyes and looked around frantically. The screaming continued, and surprisingly, Sonic didn't spot Chip in his arms anymore. Instead, he found him on the ground curled up in a fetal position and screaming.

"Chip? Chip, calm down!" The werehog called out, crawling over to him. Chip's screams slowly turned into whimpering and heavy breathing, but he still seemed just as frightened as before. "Chip, what's wrong?"

Chip started speaking in whimpers and mumbles Sonic couldn't understand, but eventually his speech turned into something he could make out. "-A-and it was raining- and I didn't know where it was – I-I think it was Ch-Chun-nan- and then he came and I didn't know who he was, a-and he started pushing me around, but then they slashed through the cuts you gave me, and I was bleeding- th-then he tried to drown me – then he pulled out a dagger, and there was poison, and then he- he- he... HE TRIED TO KILL ME!"

Chip collapsed to the ground in a ball, and Sonic couldn't tell it he was crying or just whimpering. His voice was breaking as scared whimpers escaped his throat.

"Chip... what are you talking about?" Sonic questioned. He knew it must've just been a nightmare, but he was so brief about explaining it...

"I dunno – I don't know who that was... he kinda looked like me in a way... and he... he kept calling me 'Light'..." His voice broke. "Sonic, I'm so scared!"

He collapsed into Sonic's arms, who just lightly stroked his fur, attempting to calm him down. "It's ok, Chip... it was just a dream... it can't hurt you."

Chip soon quieted down, though he still clutched onto Sonic's fur as if for dear life. He stayed silent for a while, but soon began to whimper again. Unknownst to what was bothering him, Sonic hugged him closer in an attempt to comfort him. Though, he continued to whimper.

"S-Sonic...?" he started in the quietest voice.

"Yeah, Chip?" The fairy raised his hand up shakily, showing Sonic the scary liquid that coated it.

* * *

NOT A FANCHARACTER, I SWEAR.

i'd say something else about this, but i'm just not in the mood.

make me happy and leave some reviews, k?

"I'm bleeding..."


	11. Path to Darkness

this chapter's got a lot of blood in it, so... you have been warned

* * *

Sonic stared at Chip's bloody hand with shock in his eyes. He grabbed his hand and examined it, then pulled his other hand away from his bandage-covered chest, which was also soaked with newly revealed blood. He gasped as he pulled down Chip's bandages which revealed the cuts he had given him, only once again dripping blood. Not to mention he had a new small cut going over the ones he already had pumping out loads of the red liquid.

"Wh-what? But... how..?" Sonic questioned, lightly wiping his fingers through the blood.

"S-Sonic.. what happened?" Chip asked, obviously freaked out. Sonic pressed his hand against Chip's chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding which made the fairy wince. The blood smeared onto his hand and continued to flow out of the multiple cuts.

"I... I don't know..." Sonic answered reluctantly, saddened that he had no idea what was going on. He pulled the bandages off Chip and formed them all together into one pile of cloth. He pressed it against Chip's chest and placed his small, bloody hand on top of it, keeping all of it in place. "Keep pressing that against your chest, ok?"

Chip nodded and did what he was told, but winced in pain as he pressed down harder. "That stings, Sonic!" he whimper with pain. Sonic got up off the stone ground and picked Chip up, placing him up on his quilled back. He grabbed Chip's free hand and wrapped it around his neck tightly so the fairy wouldn't fall off.

"Hang on tight Chip, ok?" Chip nodded, small, scared tears slightly forming in his eyes. He was truly becoming scared – he didn't even know what exactly what was going on! Had his strange dream played a part in the issue? Was that creature more than just a figment of his imagination? Was his nightmare becoming... real? He gasped in sharply and clutched on tighter to the pile of bandages and onto Sonic's fur. Chip glanced out past Sonic's shoulder with frightened eyes and realized how different the experience on this stage would be compared to the others. Not only would they have to make sure to avoid the usual obstacles, they also had to keep an eye out for any traces of the village's elder whom Chip had honestly completely forgotten about. And Sonic would have to constantly make sure the fairy was still alive, which would probably slow their progress down immensely. The thought of it made Chip hug tighter onto Sonic's back and whisper out an inaudible 'I'm sorry, Sonic...' to him.

Sonic began walking out of the building and onto a large wall that went on for what looked like miles. Peeking over Sonic's shoulder, Chip wasn't able to see the end of the long, windy wall. Though, he quickly pushed it to the back of his mind as Sonic began running a fast pace down the path. Though going quite fast, it still took a while for them to get to the end of the path, which was partly broken off, leaving a wide ditch as an obstacle. Sonic quickly placed his hand over Chip's and clutched it tighter to his shaggy fur so he wouldn't fall off as the werehog got down on all fours and jumped across the ditch. Landing safely, Sonic ran up to a similar building as before which had two different paths – through it, or on top of it. Sonic bit his lip lightly as he jumped up for the top path and swung himself up using a nob. Thankfully, the top path seemed to lead to the same place as the bottom, and by the looks of it, it was very possible that they had just avoided a brawl with the nightmares. Sonic was admittedly quite grateful for that, as he didn't think Chip could survive for that long without his aid. He still wondered what exactly had happened to him...

Jumping down, he spotted a turnable lever like the one he had used in Spagonia to ruin the villagers' clock tower (he couldn't help but wonder if they had ever fixed that). He turned over to a pulled up bridge, then back at the lever. Approaching it, Sonic put his hands on the lever and started turning it clockwise. As expected, the bridge slowly dropped down to the next building, level enough for Sonic to walk across. He did so, and as he entered the building, he was greeted by the sight of a new looking enemy – large, fan-like robots with stubby arms and legs, probably put there by Eggman. Curious, Sonic walked to the edge of the path, which was also broken off, and got ready to jump to the next broken part of the wall that continued in front of him. Expectantly though, the fan robot in front of him raised its arms and the propellers in its center began to rotate at a quick pace. It blew a strong wind towards the two of them, and Sonic was pushed back. As soon as he felt Chip's grip tighten greatly onto him, he turned back and grabbed hold of a box that he had unwisely passed and threw it at the fan. On impact, the fan stumbled back and fell to the ground, and Sonic took the opportunity to jump over and pick it up. Raising it above his head, he quickly tossed over to the next fan, who was about ready to blow the two of them off the cliff. Once down, Sonic jumped over and picked up the dazed and dented robot and chucked it off the cliff. He turned to the path in front of him – still the long wall that went on seemingly forever, but this section was greatly damaged. Sonic began to wonder what exactly had happened to it – the great earthquake that split the world apart was his first choice, but the large architecture looked pretty old – it could've just broken apart with time. He ignored the matter and continued on the remaining pieces of the wall until he reached another large break in it, one that he couldn't jump over no matter how hard he tried.

Thankfully a couple of the harmless bats appeared, leading the way across. Sonic grabbed onto one and clung on tightly, then swung himself over to the next. Though, the constant swaying movement didn't seem to work too good for Chip.

"Sonic... I don't feel too good-" Before Sonic could reply, he felt one of the fairy's hands let go of his fur, and his other hand's grip tighten even more. He felt Chip's small legs also attempting to grip onto him as his tiny body turned to the left. Sonic heard him wretch and throw up over the faraway ground, which made him frown a little. Chip's other grip returned, but it was weakened.

"Chip – I appreciate you trying to keep that stuff off of me, but if you're gonna kill yourself over it, don't bother – I won't mind," Sonic informed him as he swung over to solid ground. It was then that the werehog noticed that Chip didn't have any remnants of his stomach contents coating his mouth – his lips were bright red, and the liquid he had just hurled up was dripping down his chin. He had just puked blood. Sonic gasped and he quickly picked Chip off his back and examined him. The fairy was still bleeding terribly, and the bandages he had used as a tourniquet was now completely soaked in blood. He also noticed that Chip was breathing rather heavily, and somehow Sonic knew it wasn't from just throwing up. He moved his small hand away from his chest, which wasn't just covered with blood, but the cuts were starting to turn black as if something had infected him. Apparently Chip was also just noticing this for the first time, and gasped at the sight.

"Sonic..." he whimpered. After some broken gasps, he spoke again – a question that was looming over his mind like a giant raincloud.

"Am I gonna _die_?"

He looked like he was about to burst into tears, and Sonic didn't blame him – the kid looked like he was about to die of blood loss, and now he had something wrong going on inside of his body – and neither of them had the slightest idea of what had even happened! Though, Sonic was sure about something. "No," he replied with a determined voice. "Not on _my_ watch, you're not!"

Placing Chip back up onto his back, Sonic got down in a running stance and began to sprint ahead at quite a fast pace – nowhere near his regular speed, but Sonic had no time to think about that. Though, as he looked ahead, he spotted a blockade in his path, preventing him from going forward any longer. He slowed his running and looked around. "Huh? Where's the pa- AUAAAHHH!"

The ground beneath him collapsed – apparently a very old, worn out, bamboo bridge – and the two fell to the ground. Sonic didn't feel Chip's grip on him anymore as he collided with the hard ground and felt a searing pain go through his arm. He opened his eyes after just realizing they were shut, and almost immediately clutched his arm in pain. As he clenched onto it, he spotted a broken piece of bamboo near him that had apparently cut his arm. But he quickly pushed his pain away as he realized what could've happened to Chip. Hurriedly, he got up off the ground (and soon noticed a minor but manageable cut on his left leg) and looked around. "Chip?"

He spotted the fairy sitting on his knees, one hand on the ground to keep him stable, the other clutching onto his chest. Quickly, Sonic rushed over to him and inspected any damage he might've taken from the fall. He had a bruise on his arm, most likely from impacting the hard ground, and he seemed to be bleeding even more than before. He moved Chip's hand away from his chest and examined it quickly – apparently a broken piece of bamboo had cut through him as well, but right across his already bleeding chest. And the black from his cuts seemed to be morphing into veins, and at a quite fast rate at that. Chip's bundle of bandages was nowhere to be seen – Sonic just guessed that he had lost them in the fall. Forced, shaky breaths escaped Chip's mouth as he winced in pain, tears forming in his eyes.

"Oh Chip..." The fairy looked so damaged, so broken. Like he was going to die in only a matter of minutes. The thought quickly shoved Sonic into gear and he picked the dying creature up and placed him on his back, where he held on weakly. As soon as Sonic started running towards a barrel of water placed on top of a rock, Chip clenched his eyes shut in both pain and worry. His arms shakily held onto the werehog, but he was becoming too weak to get a better grip on him. Sonic grabbed hold onto the barrel and walked over to the fire that blocked his path. Chip watched with blurry eyes as he threw the water onto the fire, creating a way past. Ahead lied a sheer rock cliff, and the only way over to the next area was a couple of poles that hung above the ditch the broken bridge ahead created. Chip immediately clutched on as tight as he could onto Sonic's fur, and tilted his head away from his shoulder. Expectantly, as soon as Sonic started swinging on them, he felt another surge of blood run up his throat and escape his mouth. He gagged and spitted the horrible tasting liquid out.

Sonic walked over to the wall to his left and jumped onto the platforms jotting out of it. Chip clutched on tightly, a small fear of falling looming in his mind, but was soon jutted out as Sonic topped another large rock and was faced with the sight that the two of them hadn't seen in a while -

Nightmares.

Dinos emerged from the ground first, then wizards, then the harmful pink bats. Chip was suddenly pulled off of Sonic's back by Sonic himself and was placed atop of a platform jutting out from the wall in front of them. Though, as soon as he was away from harm, he spotted one of the dinos opening its rather wide mouth and jumped onto Sonic, biting onto his softened quills. He watched as he pulled it off him, and tossed it into a wizard, which surprisingly didn't warp away in time. Though, Chip noticed Sonic clutch his right arm in pain after wards, and just noticed that there was blood coming out of it. He reluctantly watched Sonic get pummeled by all the dinos, then whacked on the head with the wizards' staffs. The bat creatures were shooting bright pink balls of energy at him, which Sonic just barely had enough time to dodge. Though there hadn't been very many throughout the area, the nightmares seemed to be more... violent than before. Chip first just guessed it was because they were getting farther into their journey, but soon realized the Dark Gaia spawn weren't nearly as fierce earlier in the night. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and he doubled over in pain. He clenched his eyes shut, and clutched his chest, his nails digging right into his cuts. He felt the black veins stiffen and spread throughout his body, and he could feel his chest getting tighter. Chip began to feel lightheaded, like blood wasn't getting to his brain, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Like something was compressing against his lungs.

_'Time's running out, Light,'_ he heard someone say. Chip immediately recognized it as the demonic voice of the creature from his dream, and quickly raised his head up to look around. Though, he saw nothing, and heard Sonic's shouts of pain in the distance. _'He's getting weaker,'_ the creature's voice rang out again. He looked around again, but again saw nothing. Chip then looked down at Sonic, who was seemingly being trampled by the nightmares below. _'They'll all kill him...'_ Chip raised his hands to his ears, trying to block out the creature's voice.

"N-no..." he whimpered. It could've just been his imagination, but Chip could've sworn he could hear a clock ticking loudly in the distance, its 'dongs' getting louder and slower as he felt his heart race.

_'The clock's ticking...'_ Chip clutched his head, attempting to block it all out, but nothing seemed to work. _'The poison's already gotten to your heart...' _Chip began to whimper louder than anticipated. He clenched his eyes shut. The ticking was drowning out any other sound he heard, and he eventually lost the sound of Sonic's yells coming to his ears. Though, he could make out one last thing the creature had murmured to him.

_ 'You will **die**!'_

"No... no, no, no- AAUHH!" Chip collapsed, his hands both clasping his head as he screamed. He fell down to the floor accidentally, down to the fight that wasn't seeming to end. That line repeated in his head over and over, blocking out any other sound that was entering his ears. He managed to make out Sonic shouting out his name, but just couldn't reply or even see what was happening right in front of him. Chip could seemingly hear his heart beating, and could hear nearby crashes and cracks of something. As he raised his ears, he heard no more screeching or roaring of the nightmares, but heard Sonic call out his name again in worry, this time he could hear it much more clearly.

"Chip? Chip!" Sonic picked him up into his arms, and Chip couldn't stop himself from yelling out gibberish even he couldn't understand. His voice was high with fear, and he realized he was wasting the little breath he had left. His gibberish was soon reduced to just heavy breathing and whimpering, but he couldn't help but clutch onto Sonic's body as tight as he could, as if it would save his life. He felt Sonic moving again, as the werehog was probably determined to get the two to safety. His hand held Chip close to him as the fairy felt him jump a couple times to go up, but he still didn't dare open his eyes. He heard Sonic say something about being near the end, but he still didn't look out for the exit. He heard nightmares emerge from the ground and he felt something whizz past them, but surprisingly Sonic didn't put Chip down and fight them. Instead he continued to jump from platform to platform until he heard a rumbling – much bigger than what the regular nightmares made.

"Oh no – no, no, no—no! Chip, get off me! **Now!**" he heard Sonic yell with large amounts of worry in his voice. But before he could open his eyes and see what he was so frantic about, he heard Sonic scream in pain and he was suddenly thrown off of him. Chip's eyes darted open as he hit the ground and skidded to the edge. He slipped off, but held onto the ledge as tight as he could. Unfortunately his grip wasn't that great, and he could feel himself slipping off. He tried to kick himself up with his feet, but they kept slipping. He spotted Sonic lying on the ground struggling to get up, obviously in a lot of pain. As soon as he was up, he ran over to Chip and pulled him up, then ran right towards the nightmare he had been shouting about – it was a titan, and Sonic had a pretty bad experience with the last titan that he had faced, so Chip wasn't too surprised that Sonic would have problems against this one.

Chip watched worriedly as Sonic threw himself into the titan, only to be swatted back by its giant wooden club. He landed on his stomach, and apparently was having a hard time getting up. Chip wanted desperately to try and help him, but he didn't feel like he really could in his current state. Thankfully though, Sonic got back up and charged right at the titan again. He landed a few hits on it before it slammed its fist onto him, leaving him lying on the ground in agony. "S-Sonic!" The werehog didn't respond, or move for that matter. Chip's ears drooped as he feared the worst. Was Sonic unconscious? ..._Dead?_ His thoughts were interrupted as he spotted Sonic getting up weakly, a serious tone of emotion plastered on his face. It looked like he was angry, but somehow Chip knew that wasn't the case.

It was pure determination.

Sonic stood on his feet, legs quaking in pain. He stood in a fighting stance, then wiped a small dribble of blood falling from the corner of his mouth. The titan raised its club, but before it could swing, Sonic jumped up, swung his unharmed arm back, and punched the titan right in the face, dazing it. He grabbed its horns and swung his spiky feet right into its face, then jumped over its head, his grip on its horns still tight. As he fell behind it, Sonic kept his grip on the titan's horns, and with all the strength left in him, he swung it forward with him, slamming it down to the ground hard. The titan didn't move after wards, and it soon evaporated into that purple gas that both of them secretly loved to see. Sonic collapsed to his hands and knees in pain. Chip wanted to go over to him and ask him if he was alright, but felt as if he couldn't even move and felt another surge of blood escaping his mouth. He spit it out, and coughed weakly, which grabbed Sonic's attention. He got up and hobbled over to him, picking the fairy up off the ground.

"Are... are you ok?" Sonic questioned, obviously worried.

"I... I don't think so..." Chip answered, his voice much weaker than before. Sonic apparently took notice, and and immediately started running as fast as he possibly could over to the exit. A large colorful temple, probably leading to something important, stood in the way of their path, but before Sonic went any further, he picked something off the ground – the tablet fragment, which Chip had forgotten about. He coughed up another surge of blood and sputtered violently, struggling to get air back into his lungs. "Sonic..." he wheezed out. "I... I can't breathe..." Chip clutched his bleeding chest in pain, which felt much tighter than before. He glanced down at his cuts, which were now completely black and stained bright red. The black veins had completely spread across his chest, and he could feel his heart slowing. He guessed Sonic had taken notice of his problems, as the werehog quickly swung him onto his quilled back and pushed the doors of the temple open. Inside was a large arena with four large platforms surrounding a small, shallow pond. Something glinted in the middle of it, and Sonic quickly took the chance to swing himself down to see what it was. Upon coming in contact with the ground, Chip was nearly flung off of Sonic's back as he skidded to a stop right in front of the pond. In the center was an old aged man holding a shining green object that looked like it was made from the same material as Chip's necklace lying unconscious. Sonic immediately ran right over to the edge of the pond, but suddenly skidded to a halt as something large flew over his head. He looked up after unconsciously ducking down and spotted something that he was in no way, shape, or form ready to face.

A large flaming bird, most likely a phoenix, perched itself onto the edge of one of the platforms. It faced the three and gave out a loud, ear piercing screech which made both Sonic and Chip raise a hand to their ears. Though, Sonic's blood stained hand soon fell to the cut on his arm, which he clenched tightly in pain. Thinking quickly, he ran over to the man in the center of the pond and picked him up in his arms. He immediately began running over to the edge of the arena after he spotted the phoenix lunging off the platform and flying straight towards them. Though, the werehog didn't have enough time to reach the edge as he felt the bird's flames approaching and eventually singing his fur. Before he knew it, he heard Chip shout out something and weakly jumped off his back in fear. Then he felt severe burning and began to see the red orange flames engulfing his body.

The bird had lit him on fire.

Sonic dropped the man to the ground unconsciously and began screaming out in agony as the flames burned off his fur and singed his skin. "oh- AHH! AH GOD! AAUAAHH!" He darted over to the pool and dived right in, then rolled around in the cooling water until the flames and some of his fur were completely gone. He lay there for a few seconds until he spotted the phoenix again flying in the air not too far away from him. The bird stopped and stared at him for a second, then swung its large tail out, sending some of its flaming feathers out towards Sonic. The werehog quickly got out of the water and started dashing away on all fours, eventually hiding behind one of the platforms. But as soon as he peeked out to see if it was safe to go out, he heard something break and felt water drip onto his head. Curious, he grabbed onto the ledge of the platform and looked over it, and spotted some broken pot pieces with water leaking out of it. Sonic looked over to the other platforms, and spotted the same on each – the remaining three all had a large white jar containing water on top of them, and suddenly, an idea sparked in Sonic's mind. Though, he had only spotted four jars, and it seemed like his avoidance technique had just gotten one broken. It seemed as if he had three chances and three chances only to get this right.

Sonic quickly spotted the phoenix flying above the arena, waiting for him to come out. Thinking fast, he got down on all fours and started dashing as quickly as he could over to the nearest platform. Once he reached it, he climbed up on top of it and grabbed the jar, raising it above his head. As expected, the phoenix darted right over to him like a firework in the sky, lighting up the area as it spiraled down towards him. Sonic's grip on the jar tightened, and he soon found himself biting his lip, hoping desperately to get his aim right. As soon as the phoenix was a close enough distance to him, Sonic closed his eyes and threw the jar at the bird, soon expected to be lighted on fire again. Though surprisingly, he heard the splash of water and the jar break, and he heard the phoenix screech loudly. Opening one of his eyes, he saw nothing flaming before him, but instead a purple phoenix retreating from him, a bunch of its feathers falling off from being burned.

"It... it worked!" Sonic retorted to himself. His plan had been successful – the phoenix was now unarmed, and the werehog could now try to attack it without the fear of being burned. He watched closely as the bird flew back over to the platform he was just at and perched onto it, looking like it was trying to regain strength. Sonic quickly took the chance to jump off and race over to the platform the bird was on and ran right under it. He swatted his arms at its legs like he would at any other regular enemy, then stepped back a little. He lunged forward at it, swinging a powerful punch right at it, and as he landed, Sonic punched the bird's stomach hard, making it fall to the ground. He landed over to the ground, and couldn't help but howl in victory as he realized his plan had worked.

But before he could actually rejoice, he heard the phoenix screech again, and he slowly turned back to his foe with a bit of doubt in his eyes. The phoenix was back up in the air again, and spun rapidly in circles, creating a strong wind that pushed Sonic far away from it. As he looked up again, he spotted the phoenix, only engulfed in flames once more. Sonic's mouth went agape as the bird threw its head back and threw multiple flaming feathers in his directions rapidly. Quickly as he possibly could, he attempted to run away from them, but they all caught up to him and eventually hit him in the side as he was running, once again coating him with fire. He let out another pain-filled scream, then dived right back into the two inch deep pool to put out the fire with the flame covered feathers still tailing him. Some hit him, which he quickly put out, while the other feathers landed in the water. He pulled out the rather sharp feathers sticking out of his body, leaving small sprouts of blood where the feathers used to be. He quickly rolled back and forth in the water, attempting to clean off the soot and blood before the phoenix attacked again, then got up and ran towards the next platform and climbed up. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Chip a far distance away pulling the unconscious man over to the edge of the arena and out of harms way. The fairy looked over to him with a worried glance, then looked away, gazing at something else. Sonic glanced over to what Chip was looking at, and noticed the phoenix was again charging right at him. Quickly, he grabbed the jar he was right next to and tossed it right at the bird as it was approaching. It did the trick, and the phoenix was once again out of flames. The bird turned back to go the nearest platform, but Sonic took the chance to jump right on its back and started to punch its back and neck as hard as he could. Once looking like it couldn't take much more damage, Sonic jumped up and grabbed hold of the phoenix's neck and slammed his spiked feet down into its skin, hard, knocking it down back to the ground. The impact made Sonic fly right off, but he landed on the ground with a smirk of determination on his face. He was close to winning this battle – he could tell, the phoenix was getting weaker each time he attacked it.

He knew what he had to do to win – just repeat the pattern he had made (without getting attacked again, of course), then deliver a final blow to knock the oversized bird out completely. Smirking with confidence, Sonic quickly dashed out of the way before the phoenix could throw its razor sharp blazing feathers at him, and soon came to a stop as the bird suddenly slammed down onto the ground, creating a rather big shockwave of fire. Sonic quickly jumped over it though, avoiding it completely, then continued over to the last platform. As soon as he reached it, he jumped onto the lower step and pulled himself up to the jar, which he quickly grabbed and carefully aimed at the phoenix as it started to charge right at him again.

"Nighty-night, birdie.." Sonic smirked with a somewhat... evil tone of voice. As the bird rapidly approached him, he got ready to toss the last jar right at it. But he nearly dropped the vase as a familiar shriek of agony filled the air, catching his attention.

"AAAAAUUUHHH!"

"Chip?" Sonic had almost forgotten about the fairy's life-threatening problems. He looked over to him, and gasped at what he saw. Chip was lying on his back, clutching his chest in agony. He looked like he was struggling, but then he remembered. _'I can't breathe...'_ was what the last thing he had said to him. And that rather loud scream of his appeared to have wasted what little breath he had left. Sonic mentally slapped himself for forgetting about the fairy so easily, but soon realized he hadn't been burned or even bumped into by the phoenix. He turned to the large bird again, who seemed to have stopped in the air, and slowly cocked his head towards where the scream had come from with a low growl escaping its throat. It was glaring right at Chip with an evil look in its eye. Sonic quickly realized what the flaming bird was planning to do.

"No..." he whispered with fearful eyes. But fear soon turned into realization as he realized that if that phoenix attacked, Chip would surely die tonight. And Sonic wouldn't allow that to happen. He had made a promise to the fairy earlier in the night that he wasn't going to let him die as long as he, himself was still kicking. And though Chip wasn't fully conscious when he had said it, Sonic was still determined to keep that promise. Steadily, he tightened his grip on the vase he had been holding back and raised it back up above his head and kept his aim keen. "Not while _I'm _still alive!" he growled out with a voice cold as ice. As soon as the phoenix started moving towards Chip and the man with him, Sonic jumped up in the air and tossed the vase right at it, putting its fire out and stopping it in its tracks. The bird screeched loudly, and Sonic kicked himself into gear and jumped onto its back, repeating the same process as before and punched the bird as hard as he could until it was severely weakened. Then, he climbed up the bird's neck and grabbed onto its horns, then jumped down, horns still in grasp. With all the strength he had left in him, Sonic swung the phoenix forward as hard as he could, making it slam against the hard ground.

The werehog landed on the ground safely, then collapsed to his hands and knees. He breathed heavily, then looked over towards Chip and the man, who had seemed to regain consciousness without him knowing. Sonic got up slowly, then hobbled over to the two. As he approached, the man turned to him with worried eyes.

"You ok?" Sonic questioned, picking the dying Chip up in his arms.

"I'm fine – but your friend's not doing so well," the man answered. He gazed over at Chip, who was still struggling to breathe and spasming out in pain. Sonic hugged him closer, as if it would do something for him.

"I.. I know..." he choked out, biting his lip.

"If we do not act now, he'll surely die." The phrase Sonic did not want to hear. He turned to the man with worry.

"How much time do you think he has left?"

There was a pause before the man, whom Sonic had just realized was the village's elder, spoke again.

"Not much. He'll either die from the poison, blood loss, or suffocation if you do not get him help now," he answered. It was then Sonic realized that the man was a doctor – he remembered that the girl from the village had said he was a well known medical doctor, and that all his medicines had worked. A glimmer of hope sparked in his heart, but soon died out when he realized the man more than likely didn't have any ailments on him, or at least anything that would help the fairy. Perhaps Sonic couldn't keep his promise to Chip after all...

Sonic bit his quivering lip hard before looking around for any sign of hope, and soon spotted the large doors of the Temple of Gaia just across the arena. He honestly wasn't quite up for going in and placing the Chaos Emerald into it, but his mind slowly changed as he noticed that Chip was holding onto that green shining gem that the man had closely, getting some of his blood on it. Suddenly, the large gemstone shone brightly, and Sonic heard the temple doors open in the background. He was about to question it, but decided not to as Chip dropped the stone right back to the ground, a strained look on his face. Sonic turned to the man once again and spoke.

"Can you... can you watch that bird for me and make sure he doesn't get up again?" Sonic wanted desperately to ask him to attempt save Chip, or at least buy him some time, but he already knew there was nothing he could do. He clutched the fairy tighter to his chest as the man nodded, then got up and ran as fast as he possibly could on two legs over to the temple. He grabbed a branch hanging over the large gap in between the arena and the temple and swung himself over. He reached it, and immediately ran right into it, pulling one of the Chaos Emeralds out. As he reached the pedestal, he layed a hand out onto it, waiting for the column inside it to rise out. But... nothing happened, and the whole temple stayed silent.

"Huh..?" Sonic walked around the pedestal, laying his hand on different sections, but alas, nothing happened. "Why won't it rise up?" he asked himself. His heart was crumbling – his friend was dying right in front of his eyes and there was nothing he could do about it, and now he wasn't able to restore one the Chaos Emeralds to restore the planet. His head lowered in sorrow. Though, he felt something move against his chest. He opened his eyes and glanced downward, and spotted Chip attempting to get on top of the pedestal, using all the strength he had left to push himself up. He got up and sat on his knees, his hands laying beside him to stabilize himself. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, whispering something Sonic couldn't understand or really even hear for that matter. The fairy's gem necklace shined brightly, and before they knew it, the inner column rose up.

Sonic's mouth went agape, but he payed no mind to it as he slowly put the Chaos Emerald atop of the column hole and put a hand onto Chip's back, who looked like he was about to fall to the ground, dead. He closed his eyes as he didn't dare witness the Emerald gain back its power – it was too painful for him. Perhaps he could save the world after all, but there was next to no hope for Chip... He heard the Emerald emit a ring of light around it, then he heard Chip gasp in deeply, as if it were his last breath. Sonic slowly opened his glassy eyes to look at the fairy, and almost fell over in shock at what he saw. Strange green streams of light entered and exited his body, making him hold onto the column for support and gasp inward constantly. Something seemed to be happening to him, but Sonic couldn't for the life of him tell what it was.

"Ch-Chip?" he shouted out in worry. The fairy didn't respond as the streams of light kept going through him. After a few seconds that seemed like forever though, the lights disappeared, and Chip collapsed to the ground. "...Chip?" Sonic picked the fairy up after hearing no response and looked at him with worry. He wasn't awake anymore, but all of his injuries seemed to have disappeared. The black veins weren't there anymore, neither were his multiple cuts – not even the scratch on his wing! All of them were gone. Though, the fairy stayed unresponsive. Cautiously, Sonic raised Chip up to his ear, laying it onto his chest and listened closely for any indication that he was still alive. Though, his heart slowly broke when he heard nothing – not his heart beating, not any breathing, broken or steady -

Nothing.

Sonic's grasp on Chip tightened, and he could feel a sense of failure creeping up into him. "I'm so sorry, Chip..." he whispered with a broken voice. He lied his forehead against the fairy's chest, nearly breaking into tears. He realized he had unintentionally broken his promise to Chip, and that his flaw had gotten him killed. He stood there for a while, unsure of what to do. But then, something – a small movement – broke his thoughts. Sonic felt something move against his forehead. He opened his eyes and lied a couple fingers onto Chip's chest, which he soon realized was now moving up and down again. He put the fairy's chest right up to his ear again, and a small smile suddenly grew on his face when he heard a heartbeat. His breathing was surprisingly steady, not broken, not strained. Though Chip's breathing was quite heavy, but Sonic just dismissed it as regaining his lost breath.

Though, Sonic's attention turned to the bright red Chaos Emerald in the air, then around the temple. Had both of them healed the fairy? And why didn't it heal him? But he quickly pushed that latter thought aside as he realized that Chip had needed it more, and that he could handle the injuries himself. He hugged Chip close, but soon fell to the ground when he felt the ground below him moving. Of course – he had completely forgotten about restoring the continent. Sonic lied on the ground for a while with Chip safely in his arms until it was steady enough to walk again. As soon as he could, he got up and walked out of the temple and swung himself over the gap and onto the arena again. He raced over to the man, but was suddenly stopped by a huge and rather colorful and bright bird perching itself onto one of the platforms. Sonic shook his head to clear his mind – he had just witnessed Chip practically coming back to life; that couldn't of been happening too!

...Could it?

Sonic spotted the village elder walking up to him. "The moment the temple lit up, the beast woke up!" he informed. Sonic stepped forward towards him. "It appears he's come back to his senses."

Sonic considered the possibilities of that bird being possessed by Dark Gaia just like all the other people he had seen. It certainly made sense – why else would the phoenix have tried to kill both him and Chip? "I see..." he finally stated. He walked forward towards the bird. "So... your job is to guard the Chaos Emerald temple, am I right?"

The phoenix screeched loudly in response. "You must've gone berserk when the Emeralds lost their power..." he pondered aloud. Sonic looked up at the bird with a smirk. "Well then – I'm glad I could help you out."

The phoenix seemingly nodded, then rose itself off the platform, and flew over to the top of the temple. Sonic waved, then turned back to the elder, who was closely examining Chip.

"How is he?" he questioned.

"He's... _alive_..." Sonic answered, actually quite shocked about it, himself. The two started to walk out of the arena and over to the actual exit, talking about everything that seemed important. Apparently the elder's name was Zonshen, and he had gone missing because the village's treasure – the large green gemstone – had rolled off during the earthquake, and he had pursued after it, but had gotten lost. He appeared to be quite surprised that their treasure was actually the key to the Temple of Gaia there. Then Sonic got onto the topic of Chip, and their main reason for looking for the elder. He explained how they had heard that Zonshen's ailments always worked, and how Chip had a rather bad case of amnesia, and that they wanted the elder to help him. Sonic explained the brief summary of the dream Chip had given him, and how he had mysteriously started bleeding right after it. He explained the actual journey they were on, and about the previous places they had gone. As they returned, Zonshen had apologized for the trouble he had put the two through (though, Sonic explained they would have to go through that even _if_ he wasn't missing) and offered to create a treatment, or possibly a cure, for Chip's amnesia in return for their help. Sonic was quick to agree, and was becoming quite mad at himself for believing the man wasn't worth their time – though, he knew they probably would come for him eventually.

They arrived back in the village around dawn or so – Sonic honestly lost track of time from all the traveling. But apparently they had made a lot of noise coming back in, as the two kids from earlier came out of their house and practically tackled their grandfather down to the ground from excitement from seeing him for the first time in a long time. After minutes of rejoicing their grandfather's return, they eventually started thanking Sonic gratefully for returning him. Though the girl, Yilin, soon looked like she was about to break down in tears as soon as she spotted the unconscious, bloodied fairy laying in his arms.

"Whu- What happened to Chip?" she questioned. Sonic first started to wonder why she would be so worried for Chip, but then remembered the conversation they had. Chip _had_ been the one to promise to get their grandfather back, and he _had_ kept that promise, so it'd only be natural for her to worry for him.

"Don't worry – he's just fine," he smiled solemnly. He then turned to Zonshen. "You think you can check over him for me just in case?"

Zonshen nodded, then Sonic turned back to the kids. "Ok guys – I have a _very_ important job for you. I want you to watch over Chip while I'm gone. Feed him, keep him safe, comfort him if he needs it. You think you can do that for me?" Sonic offered. The two kids nodded. The werehog smiled, then cautiously handed Chip over to Yilin. "I'll be back, ok? Thank you so much.." Sonic lightly patted Yilin's head, then turned around to Zonshen, who handed him something he needed. The sun tablet – something he was glad to see.

Though, he still wondered what it would be like without Chip by his side.

* * *

i said it had a lot of blood. i'm already almost done with the 12th chapter, so hopefully i should upload it sometime soon.

please review!


	12. Memories  Try 1

_'Everything was back – the rain, the lightning, the sense of fear. Some things were changed, taken out, alternated – but the same idea was still there. The creature attacked him, tortured him, reminded him of stuff he had never even heard of before... called him that frightful name... The things the creature said echoed in his mind like a broken record._

_ "Time's running out..."_

_ "They're coming for you..."_

_ "I will be completed..."_

_ "I will destroy this world – and nothing will stop me..."_

_ "You will __**die**__-"_

Chip woke up abruptly, and gasped as his head popped off the pillow. He breathed heavily and could feel sweat dripping down his forehead. Before any other thoughts could enter his mind, he quickly pulled the blanket off of him and examined himself – no cuts, no new blood, no bruises, no black veins... He could feel a sigh of relief escape his lips as he saw no injuries on him at all... But, it still surprised him. Hadn't he almost died because of the injuries he had obtained last night? Though, before he could try to answer his own question, he heard two high-pitched voices filling his ears.

"Yilin, look – he's awake!"

"Chip! Are you ok?"

"Do you want your food? Can I have it?"

Chip watched the two kids from last night randomly ask him things with questioned eyes. Yilin slapped the boy, Chun, in the back of the head with a scowl on her face.

"Chun, that food's for _him_, not you!" Yilin turned back to Chip, then unexpectedly pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you, Chip... thank you so much for saving our grampa... you kept your promise..."

Chip slowly recalled the promise he had made to her, but honestly didn't remember keeping it. He remembered that he and Sonic had found their grandfather, and he remembered pulling him over to safety – but anything after that was a blur. Then he realized – as soon as Yilin let go of him, Chip looked around frantically for his friend.

"Sonic?" He spoke aloud. Though, he saw nothing but the two kids looking at each other worriedly. Yilin turned back to him.

"Uh... he's not... here..." she answered reluctantly. Chip put a hand to his head before pulling the blanket off of him completely and raced past the two kids. "Ch-Chip!"

"Can I have your food?"

Chip didn't answer either kid as he pushed the door open and was immediately blinded by the blazing sun. He put a small hand in front of his eyes to shield out the sunrays, and looked around frantically. He spotted the old lady from last night, a young teenage girl arguing with an older woman, a middle aged man talking to the shop owner... but no blue hedgehog. He began to wonder if Sonic had left without him and left him alone in Chun-nan, but pushed the thought out of his head as he spotted Tails' plane parked outside the village. Strangely though, he didn't see Tails either. But he payed no mind to that as he spotted the village's elder standing outside of a building, looking around. Immediately, Chip ran up to him.

"W-where's Sonic?" he questioned frantically as he approached him. Zonshen smiled, then pointed over to the path to the shrine.

"He already left," Zonshen didn't have enough time to explain as Chip started to freak out.

"H-he left... without me?" Chip bit his lip with worry. The aged man knelt down to his level and put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

"Don't worry... Sonic left without you because you needed to rest," Zonshen finally put out. "And besides – he's out in search of the medicine to help treat that horrible amnesia of yours."

Chip breathed heavily, and admittedly cooled down a little after hearing that, but started to feel light headed. He stumbled into the man, almost falling over, but Zonshen caught him just in time. "But I'd recommend you stay put for a little while – you're still quite weak from your disaster last night."

Zonshen picked Chip up in his arms and got up off the ground. He noticed Chip's gaze didn't avert away from the shrine as the fairy reached his hand out to it. "Don't worry – he'll come back soon enough." Chip whimpered a little, but nodded.

* * *

Sonic looked down the red bridge made with wondering eyes. Getting down in a running position, he started a light sprint, gradually gaining speed as he went. As he hit a dash panel and... "skated" across the water coming onto the low bridge, he couldn't help but notice how quiet it was without his friend. Usually, he'd be ok with it, as he worked alone most of the time anyways, but he had gotten used to Chip being right at his side. He ran right into a spring which sent him into the air, then homing attacked on one of the flying robots. As he came down, he quickly took note of the two different paths he could take and decided to go up the top one, then homing attacked onto a regular enemy, then onto another one above it. He landed, and continued through the top floor of the building, his mind occasionally wandering to Chip. Every now and then, he'd check back to see if the fairy was following him, but he had to keep reminding himself he wasn't there.

What exactly had happened, anyway? That question kept replaying in Sonic's mind like a record. He tried to recall the painful memories of last night to try and solve the mini mystery, but he wasn't coming up with much. He remembered that Chip had fallen asleep when he wasn't looking, and that he himself was becoming too tired to continue on, so they stopped in a large temple-like building. Then Chip had that strange dream about... well, Sonic didn't really catch what it was about, as Chip didn't exactly fully explain it. But then... the fairy's cuts just randomly started bleeding, and the whole nightmare began. Sonic knew neither of them actually knew what had happened exactly, but the thought just couldn't leave his mind.

With the large spring, Sonic was bounced up into the air and was face to face with a line of flying enemies and three different paths – one right around and through the large temple ahead, one just through the temple, and one to the side of the temple, but they all looked like they led to the same path. Thinking quick, Sonic homing attacked onto all the robots in front of him, then dropped down to a new line of enemies and bounced himself over to the side path. The path had a bunch of boxes in the way of it, which Sonic maneuvered around by quickstepping. Then came small rows of the path still standing above the water below, which the hedgehog quickly avoided. Then he saw something he hadn't seen in quite a while -

A trail of rings leading across a break in the path. Giving a small smirk, Sonic ran right up to it and performed his all famous ring dash to get across. Once onto the path again, he quickstepped over to the left, and repeated the pattern twice before seeing the outside of the temple. He skidded off the ramp and unconsciously looked back to look for Chip, but instead just saw the exits to the other path. He looked back ahead, and ran down the windy path then ran off another ramp. He ran down the path rather quietly before he found himself skating across water again. Once back, a couple boost pads sent Sonic in a right angle, and he was running around the side of a small mountain.

As he dipped down and skated along a small trail of water, his mind wandered again to Chip, and he began to notice something – It was Sonic's journey, but... Chip seemed to be taking all the hits. He recalled all the incidents he had whilst running up a half loop-de-loop and landed on a small dock leading into the shade of a roof. Apotos was just bad luck and a bad move by himself, and Mazuri was just an accident. But... Spagonia was where it all seemed to go wrong. Sonic boosted himself off a ramp and did some tricks in the air as he recalled the painful memories of that night in Spagonia... he had attacked Chip, and all because of a bad day he was having. Chip had nothing to do with it – it was just Sonic's mistake. Then his mind wandered to Holoska, and what had happened there. Sonic somewhat blamed himself for that incident, but realized there probably wasn't anything he could've done to prevent it, anyways. Though, he still blamed himself for not noticing Chip's grasp on his ears slip until much later, and that he had to go back and find him nearly frozen to death. Then Chun-nan... this time, he had nothing to do with this one. Though, he couldn't help but think that if he was in his regular hedgehog form... or if they weren't as worn out, he could've helped him out more.

Sonic bounced off a spring and wall jumped over to a rail. As he grinded, he spotted the route he would've taken if he hadn't jumped in time, but payed no mind to it as he landed onto another dip in the bridge. He sent himself flying over to another walkway on a hill from a ramp and quickly ran up the path. Though, a small accidental look-back for Chip caused him to jump at the wrong time and miss the three red rings leading upwards. Instead though, he grabbed onto a red handle and pulled himself up, then continued to run. As the path dipped, Sonic was quick to jump and homing attacked onto some flying robots and grabbed onto some sideways poles. He spun himself around it and swung off onto the next, much like how he would in his werehog form, but he decided not to think about that. As he reached the end of the upper path, Sonic boosted himself over to another side temple then continued to run as a boost panel gave him some extra speed. He ran right off a speed ramp, then boosted himself through the giant red rings right through large building structures, almost missing it. As he landed onto the ground again, Sonic began running down the path ahead of him which eventually led to him skating atop of water again.

After seeing some large spears being thrown down to the path to his left, Sonic decided to stay on top of the rather large stretch of water. He skated into some oddly but conveniently placed dash panels to keep his speed going so he wouldn't fall right into the water, then was faced with another choice of keeping on the water or onto another spear-trapped pathway. For some odd reason, he decided he felt better on top of the water and leaned left into some more dash panels. As he went, Sonic boosted himself across the water, unconsciously going right onto the path above it – onto the path with the spears seemingly falling from the sky. As quick as he possibly could, he dodged all of them coming down, then skated across the water into a small cave. After he rounded a corner in it, he saw the light coming from outside the dark cave and boosted himself out onto a ramp. He landed safely on a narrow pathway, and continued to run right through it.

A ramp sent Sonic flying out of the narrow pathway, and he suddenly faced a new challenge. He landed on the side of the wall he should've been on, then at the right time, he jumped off onto another wall, then jumped back onto the path. Sonic rounded the corner he was on, and boosted himself onto a ramp through a couple of red rings. Glancing down, he couldn't spot much land at all, but told himself not to worry about it, as he had something he had to do, and nothing was going to stop him from doing it. He landed on a small island, then immediately started to skate along the water. Electric flying robots surrounded a dash panel necessary to use to get to the other side, but Sonic simply avoided them all and hit the panel, his speed accelerating. A couple more panels maneuvered him safely across the water and onto regular land again.

As he spotted a bunch of hot pink flowers falling from trees, Sonic knew he had arrived at the end. On his talk with the elder, Zonshen had told him about that place, and the necessary ingredients for Chip's amnesia treatment. The man had given him a list of the ingredients to pick up, and told him that all the things he needed just happened to be past the sun door of the shrine. Checking the list, he looked around for each and every thing listed and picked up the required proportion, along with the tablet fragment. As soon as he got everything, he turned back, and silently wondered how Chip was doing without him there.

* * *

Chip sighed sadly as he stared out the window, waiting impatiently for Sonic's return. He had been sitting there, looking for the hedgehog for what felt like hours, occasionally being examined by Zonshen. He didn't pay much attention to the kids as they played around with their grandfather (and he had declined every offer to join them), and put a hand onto the window, lowering his head. His next sigh caught the others' attention.

"Settle down, Chip – you're torturing yourself. Sonic'll come back soon enough," Zonshen retorted, turning to him. Chip didn't reply.

"Chip, are you sure you don't wanna play with us?" Yilin asked, though Chip just shook his head.

"Yeah, I'm sure..." Chip continued to stare continuously out the window, which showed no signs of changes outside. He rested his head on his fist as he sighed again and closed his eyes tiredly. Zonshen was definitely right about one thing – he definitely needed some rest; that small amount of sleep he had gotten last night wasn't nearly enough. Though, the thought of his lack of sleep made Chip immediately think about Sonic. Throughout most of the journey, the hedgehog was always complaining about how tired he was. And then he realized – he had never actually seen Sonic sleep before! Every day, he was out running, and every night, he had to venture through treacherous areas, constantly being beaten on by nightmares. Especially last night – the nightmares last night seemed to be more ruthless than Chip had ever seen... especially that titan. For a second, Chip actually thought Sonic wasn't going to get up again after being beaten down constantly by that giant wooden mallet.

Then there was that phoenix... though he was just barely conscious, he remembered hearing Sonic's pain filled _screams_ filling his ears. And every time Chip had looked over to him, he had either been set on fire, been attacked by the phoenix's razor sharp feathers or was trying to get a good shot onto it. Most of what he had heard, though, Sonic had a pretty damn hard time defeating it. Though, Chip butted the thoughts out of his head, as they were too painful of memories to think about.

Memories...

As he looked out the window, Chip's mind wandered to his missing memories. Zonshen had said that Sonic had gone out without him in search of the ingredients for a medicine that would hopefully cure his amnesia. Though he'd most likely find out soon, Chip couldn't help but wonder what kind of things he'd find out about himself and his life. Where had he lived before the whole incident with Sonic falling on him happened? Did he have any family members? Who were his friends? What was his real name?

Would he find out what that dream really meant?

All those questions bounced around in his head as Chip continued to stare. He uneventfully tapped his fingers on the window sill and waited for something... _anything_ to happen. Constant sighs escaped his mouth as Chip continued to stare out the window and let his eyelids fall again. The peaceful scenery outside was tempting to fall asleep to, and the constant chattering of the kids seemed to fade into nothing as he opened his eyes and gazed at it all. Mist from the waterfall covered the window he was looking through as bounds of flowers fell from trees nearby. He watched them fly around with the wind and coat the small river below, suddenly wanting to go outside and just watch it all. A small pink flower was blown away from the others by the wind and flew right over to the hill leading up to the shrine and landed into the soft blue quills of that certain hedgehog Chip had so desperately wanted to see. He glanced at Sonic's reaction to the flower landing on him and smiled as the hedgehog lightly pushed it off and watched it fly. Chip didn't take one more second to pass by the kids and run straight out the door, whispering out Sonic's name. A couple flowers blew by him as he ran across the bridge and up the hill to meet the hedgehog.

"Sonic!" Chip shouted out, surprised at how weak his voice sounded. But he didn't pay attention to the small matter as he jumped up into Sonic's arms, unintentionally knocking him back. Sonic fell back with a yelp, but put a hand onto Chip's back as the small dog snuggled into his chest as if he hadn't seen him for years.

"H-hey, Chip!" he greeted in between small laughs. "How're you doing, buddy?"

Chip didn't reply immediately, but his arms tightened around Sonic's shoulders. Looking past him, Sonic could spot Zonshen and the kids running over to them. "Did those guys take care of you?" Sonic suddenly changed his question. He felt Chip nod against his chest, and gave a small smile. As they approached, Sonic held out the ingredients he had gotten over to Zonshen. "Got 'em!"

Sonic got up off the ground with Chip still in his arms and walked over to the kids. "Thanks guys, I owe you one," he said while patting each of their heads, earning a smile from each of them. He watched Zonshen check over each of the ingredients he had gotten, nodding silently to each of them. "So... do you think you can make that ailment? I got everything you asked for."

Zonshen looked up and nodded. "Yes, I'm quite sure. The boy should be cured within minutes after taking it in." Chip suddenly perked up and looked straight up to Sonic with a smile as bright as day – something Sonic was rather happy to see. He hugged him closer and grinned. "Right then – let's get to it!"

They all followed Zonshen back into a building with cabinets and tables full with different medicines and ailments. As he walked through, Sonic glanced at some of the labels covering the containers and gasped silently. The man had a treatment for just about anything! Continuing on, he started to wonder if he had a cure, or at least a treatment for his werehog transformation. Sure, he didn't mind it too much anymore, but he still preferred being in his regular form much more. Though, he pushed the thought out of his head as he told himself that Chip needed the medicine more than he did, and that he would find an answer to his problem soon enough.

They stopped at a large table, and Zonshen grabbed a large cup and put it on the corner of it. He placed the ingredients onto the center of the table and sorted them all out. Once done, Sonic and Chip both watched as Zonshen cut and split and smashed all the ingredients up and threw them all into the cup. He picked up the cup and poured some water and another liquid – something Sonic didn't think he had seen before – into it and mixed it all together. Zonshen sprinkled one last substance into it and mixed it around again. The finished product was a light brown color with some light pink mixed into it – the liquid didn't look too appetizing, but Zonshen carefully handed it to Chip anyways, then went over and got something out from a container. Walking back, he placed the thing he got onto a napkin right in front of Chip, and Sonic quickly recognized it as a meat bun. He lightly scratched his head in confusion.

"What's the bun for?" he questioned. Chip took a sip of the medicine eagerly.

"For the taste."

Almost immediately after wards, Chip gagged and nearly spitted the liquid back out. He raised his hand in front of his mouth and sputtered a bit out, but managed to swallow the rest of it. He looked up to the two with a disgusted look on his face. "That tastes _horrible_..."

Zonshen picked up the bun on the table and held it out to him. "Here – eat this, then take a few more sips of that," the elder instructed. Chip cringed in disgust, but took a bite of the bun and gave a small grin as the horrible aftertaste was taken away. He reluctantly did as he was told and took a couple more sips of the medicine, cringing in disgust each time he took some in. After some bites of the bun he was given, which tasted like heaven compared to the ailment he was forced to drink, he put the cup down on the table and sighed.

"I sure hope that was worth it – that was horrible..." Chip commented, finishing off the bun.

"Well, if this works, you should have your memories back in a matter of minutes," Zonshen explained. Chip wiped his mouth, then smiled. They waited a few minutes for any sign of results. Zonshen occasionally asked him if he remembered anything, and Chip eventually found himself spacing out. Sonic waved a hand in front of his face just to make sure he was still with them. The fairy blinked, then put a hand to his head.

"Woah... my mind feels so... clear!" he exclaimed. Zonshen nodded.

"Good. Do you remember anything?" Chip shook his head. They waited a few more minutes in hopes of any results, but nothing was coming up. Zonshen occasionally asked if anything changed, and Chip found himself zoning out every now and then, but everything else remained the same. Nothing that wasn't already there before was there now, and Chip soon found himself losing hope.

"Nothing's changing... I don't remember anything..." he stated, putting a small hand in front of his mouth to hide his slightly quivering lip. He cringed a little as he felt Sonic lay a hand on his shoulder.

"Doc, I don't think your treatment's working," the hedgehog confirmed while pulling Chip into a deep hug. He bit his lip as he watched Zonshen's expression turn to a shocked one. He scratched his head and tapped his chin with his finger as the doctor tried to figure out why it wasn't working.

"I don't understand... that treatment has _always_ worked! Perhaps we didn't obtain all the things needed..." he suggested, though Sonic shook his head.

"No, I got everything on that list you gave me – I even checked it three times!"

"Well then perhaps I neglected to put an item on there that was especially necessary..." Zonshen pondered for a while, then rechecked both the ailment and the list, though, he found nothing wrong with the actual medicine itself. Chip stayed quiet the whole time and unconsciously hugged closer to Sonic for comfort. He heard the hedgehog sigh, then pulled him closer.

"I'm sorry, Chip," Sonic acknowledged. Chip sniffled lightly.

"I... I'm fine..." he said in the quietest voice. He looked up to Sonic and attempted to manage a small, though fake smile. "It's ok. I'm... fine..." He bit his lip and sighed. He knew he wasn't really ok, but he didn't want Sonic... or really _anybody_ to know. Though, Sonic seemed to notice anyways, and suddenly hugged him closer.

"Well... thanks for your help anyways," Sonic started. As Chip looked over to Zonshen, he noticed that the man still had a rather distraught face from his strange failure.

"Yes... and I'm very sorry I could not help with his problem. It's so strange... I did everything right... so why didn't it work?" Zonshen pondered aloud. He sighed sadly. "You said you two were leaving after this?" Sonic nodded. Chip suddenly jumped out of his arms.

"Do you think you will be back soon?"

Sonic pondered a bit before answering. "Uhh... no, probably not. Why?"

"Well, I was hoping I could create another medicine – one much stronger – perhaps it would cure Chip's condition," Zonshen answered. As he noticed Chip look back at him with hopeful eyes. Sonic thought long and hard about the possibilities until he came up with a solution. He told the doctor to send it to Spagonia University addressed to Professor Pickle. He told him to mail the medicine overseas after the Spagonian continent had been restored. Zonshen had liked the idea, and told him that he'd work as best as he could to create the perfect ailment. With one last goodbye to the family, the two continued back outside over to Tails' plane, but Sonic suddenly stopped when he noticed Chip following rather slowly. He walked back to him and knelt down to his level.

"You ok there, buddy?" Sonic questioned. "You don't look too good."

Chip nodded. "I'm fine... it's not a big deal..." he answered with a quiet voice. He looked down to the ground, avoiding eye contact with the hedgehog. "Guess I just... got my hopes up too high..." Again, he looked up to Sonic and gave him another fake smile. Sonic frowned, but didn't mention it.

"Wanna go get some food for the road?" Chip nodded silently, finally noticing his recent hunger. He started to regret declining all the offers to eat he had been given before. He noticed Sonic give a small smile, and followed him slowly over to the shop, but he slowly stopped right as he was crossing the bridge built over the water and sighed. He stared at the ground, no thoughts roaming his mind. He tried to remember for a second, tried to see if he remembered anything from his past, but the results were still the same. No memories, nothing new. Chip sighed and put a hand to his mouth – perhaps he really _did_ get his hopes up too high... His bottom lip trembled and he couldn't help but want to cry, but he clenched his eyes shut, forbidding himself to do so. He instead collapsed to his knees and dug his fingernails into the bridge, breathing quite heavily. As he opened his eyes, his sight blurred with held-back tears, but he couldn't help but notice a shiny red and white striped shoe right in front of him. Looking upward, he saw his blue friend standing in front of him, holding his hand out to him with a small, sympathetic smile on his face. Chip sniffled and wiped his now runny nose. After a small moment of silence between the two, the fairy finally took Sonic's hand, and the hedgehog pulled him up and placed him atop of his head. The two continued silently over to the shop, and Sonic ordered some meat buns and noodles to go. As they left, Sonic instinctively gave Chip one of the buns and a carton of noodles, as he had noticed that he looked pretty hungry. They got onto Tails' plane, who was apparently sleeping a bit before but had woken up when they arrived, and they flew back to Spagonia with both Sonic and Chip wishing they could take a small rest.

* * *

217 pages now. this story is now 217 pages. it's a freakin' miracle.

anywho, i have nothing else to say. hope you like it! please review!


	13. Through Good Times and Bad

jeez, that took forever! sorry it took so long. enjoy!

* * *

Tails about had a heart attack when he saw the horrid conditions Sonic and Chip were in.

He immediately noticed the large stains of blood on their bodies, the multiple cuts and bruises on Sonic, the tired and worn out expressions on both of them. Alone the plane ride, he questioned what had happened last night. Sonic explained everything he could – what very little information he had about Chip's strange dream, the harsh journey to the shrine, the rather brutal fights with the nightmares, the Dark Gaia possessed Phoenix, and about the shrine somehow healing Chip when they had restored the Chaos Emerald. Tails was bewildered about the whole thing. Chip stayed quiet throughout the whole story, both saddened and traumatized by what had happened earlier. As they landed in Spagonia, they all walked to the professor's lab – something Sonic and Chip hadn't done in quite some time. They walked in, and Sonic was almost immediately glomped by Amy, whom he also hadn't seen in a while. Though, her happiness slowly faded away when she noticed how beat up he looked.

"W-what happened to you?" she questioned worriedly.

"I'm fine – don't worry about it," Sonic stated. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the professor walking towards them. "Hey professor! Long time, no see!"

As Amy let go of him, Sonic waved to the man, who gave him a small smile. "Yes, quite," he replied with a nod.

"Got a new shrine for us to go to?" the professor nodded.

"Yes, but you shan't have to venture far – the shrine you are going to is in here, Spagonia."

Sonic gave a grin – he knew he had already done the nighttime half in Spagonia, which only left the daytime, and perhaps a fight with something else after wards. Two day stages in a row! Sonic slightly fidgeted in excitement, but slowly stopped when he noticed how quiet Chip had been. He turned to him.

"You feeling up to a quick run, Chip?" he questioned, kneeling down. Chip considered it for a little while.

"Uhh... I-I don't know... I'm not really in the mood to be left behind..." he answered unsurely. Sonic knew what he meant, but still frowned.

"Come on, Chip – it'll make you feel better," he assured. "And you should be able to keep up this time." The first time, Chip was inexperienced; the second time, he did better, but his injured wing kept him from keeping up; and the third time, he wasn't even there. Chip knew what to expect now, and his wing was... healed? Sonic didn't even see him fly once since the night before. Chip thought about his answer, then sighed.

"...Fine..."

Sonic smiled, then told him to wait outside. He turned to the professor and spoke once Chip was out of ear shot. "Hey Prof – this may seem like a strange question, but have you ever heard of the Temples of Gaia... _healing_ its activator?" he questioned, remembering back to last night.

The professor tapped his chin, then answered. "No, I'm afraid I've never heard of such a thing." Sonic tilted his head. "But it is very possible that it could occur – the Temples are filled with secrets, and there is still much to be discovered about them." Sonic wondered a bit, then nodded. "Now then – why do you ask?"

"Well, umm... something happened last night at the Temple, and..." Sonic raised a hand to the large cut on his arm. "I'll tell you about it later."

With a quick goodbye, Sonic went outside of the University where he spotted Chip mildly conversing with Amy, who gave the hedgehog a wave. Chip ended their small talk, and ran right over to Sonic. "What took you so long?" he asked.

"Had a question I needed to ask – let's go." The two took a quick look around the town, asking anybody and everybody if they had the sun tablet they needed to progress. Though, most of the people they had talked to all looked at Chip with a worried expression, and some even asked if he was ok. He answered all of them confusedly, then continued on with Sonic. After asking all the students hanging around the school (which Sonic was considering skipping next time, as they never knew anything), they ventured into the actual town and found the sun tablet quite easily after they talked to Otto, the dormsman of the University – and apparently was also the Temple Guardian. After wards, they headed into the shrine. Unintentionally, Sonic transformed back into his werehog form from the darkness of the room. The two continued on and placed the sun tablet into the door, then walked through the dark tunnel, Chip somewhat slugging behind.

* * *

Looking out into the open, Sonic got down into a running position and sprinted forward without hesitation. He took a sharp turn to the right after going straight through the alley way, avoiding a large curve. At the end of the narrow cut, he ran into a few speed boosters, which sent him flying down different pathways until he reached a spring. It bounced him right through a rainbow colored ring and onto the side opening of a building. Turning around to look back at Chip, he was amazed at how close he was to him – just a couple yards away.

"Hey Chip! How's it feeling?" he questioned, taking a sharp left into a rather narrow alleyway. In the way were some pots, which he didn't have time to avoid, so he just crashed into them, which left small, minor cuts on his legs. Chip replied with optimism Sonic honestly didn't think he'd hear from him in a while.

"Great! My wing feels _so_ much better!" he informed. Sonic laughed while running up the stairs, which led back into the regular path.

"Glad to hear."

"Though, I'm actually kinda shocked that I'm actually keeping up with you!" Chip retorted. Sonic smirked, then ran onto a boost pad.

"Oh – so you want me to go faster?"

The fairy's eyes widened. "What- no, I never said that! Wait, Soni- AUAHH!" The tremendous winds Sonic had suddenly created pushed Chip back, enough to make him yelp in surprise. Sonic laughed, then boosted himself off a ramp and into a rainbow ring. He did some tricks in the air, then landed on some boost pads. Drifting around a rather large turn, he ran into some more pads and found himself sidestepping out of some of Eggman's robots' ways. He continued on, avoiding robots whenever he spotted them and ran right onto a spring. As he was in the air, he homed in on some more robots and attacked them, creating a path. After the trail of enemies ended, Sonic blasted through another rainbow ring and spiraled down to the ground, landing swiftly.

As he ran forward, he was tempted to look back to Chip to see if he had caught up, but another boost pad interrupted his thoughts. He sprinted through another alleyway, and quickly sidestepped out of the way before he could crash into the walls. A quick robot placement led to another path ahead, out of the alleyway, and Sonic didn't take another minute to think about it before he homing attacked them and continued on. Springs sent him flying through the air, until he landed on solid ground again, then another spring sent him up. He homing attacked onto the enemies in front of him, then homed onto a spring strangely placed in a tree. The springs sent him over to a zipline, which he grabbed the handle on it and zipped down it, crashing into a spring at the end. The endless springs seemed to be doing the work for him, and he bounced around on them until he found himself...

Running on the side of the wall. Sonic slightly frowned at the strangeness of the idea, but then smirked as he soon bounced off it with a spring. He landed, then drifted around until he found a straight path again. Like Chun-Nan, three separate paths blocked his way, though they all looked like they led to the same end. Sonic chose the closest one, and homing-attacked the enemies to the left of him and boosted through a ring. He boosted right through the robot blocking his way, knocking it senseless, and continued with more "wall running", as he decided to officially name it. A spring sent him over to the other wall, and at the end of it lied another spring which led him onto another zipline. He landed on the ground, then boosted himself onto a spring and into a rainbow ring, which in turn led him to zip down another line. At the end were some robots, which he simply preformed another action chain and homed onto another zipline. Once on regular ground again, Sonic ran straight forward into a spring, where he wall jumped his way up to the top path. He couldn't avoid showing a smirk, though, as he started to hear Chip's panting.

"Finally caught up, huh? Took ya long enough," he chuckled.

"Hugh... don't do that again!" Chip whined, breathing heavily. Sonic looked ahead, then shrugged slightly.

"Sorry buddy – gotta leave you again."

Chip didn't have time to say anything as Sonic homing attacked onto a robot, then boosted himself through three red rings, which of course ended in another rainbow ring. He spiraled down to a wooden dock-like path and ran down it – which surprisingly didn't end in a spring, but instead a mini cannon. Sonic boosted into it, then pointed the cannon upward and blasted himself out into a trail of red rings. He landed on the rooftops of some people's houses, and jumped onto the next one and the next one until he boosted himself onto the side of a clock tower, which was starting to 'dong' at a rather strange time.

_'Huh. Guess they never did fix it,'_ he thought to himself as he ran up the tower. He couldn't help but laugh as he jumped onto the spring, which bounced him onto a rail. He grinded down it in a spiraling decension, then bounced onto another tower, which he ended with a zipline. Landing on another rooftop, he zipped down another line and continued onto a stone bridge, where he once again heard Chip calling out to him.

"Hey!" Sonic smirked. Chip caught up to him and frowned. "That wasn't funny!" His random comment made Sonic laugh. But he soon noticed Chip's whimpering as he suddenly clutched onto his back and pointed upwards. He looked up, and found a large robot, similar to the one in Apotos, only this one was an olive-green color, and was different in design. The sight only made Sonic laugh even more.

"Seriously Chip?" he questioned between laughs. "You already know I'm gonna take it down. Hold on tight." The robot turned around, and blasted a rather large laser to the left of him. Sonic stayed in the middle of the bridge, and jumped every time the robot suddenly let loose a rocket. The robot blasted another laser, which Sonic just barely avoided by quickstepping. More missiles came, this time, two at a time, but Sonic just simply jumped over them and boosted his way to the end of the area. Once he reached it, he skidded to a stop, and in turn sent Chip flying off his back with a yelp. He fell to the ground, and was greeted by Sonic's rather... cheerful laughter.

"Haha! That was great!" he said between laughs, all the while walking over to the dog. "I left you in the dust so many times! That was friken hilarious!"

Chip frowned, while picking up the tablet fragment. "Hey! I caught up to you, didn't I? Three times!" he argued, holding the fragment up. Sonic nodded.

"Yeah, true – I'll give you props for that. You actually did pretty well." Chip smiled, but soon frowned.

"Well, actually... um..." he started, but never truly finished.

"What?"

"I don't wanna say it..." Sonic rose an eyebrow. His glare snapped the thought into Chip's head, and he soon found himself saying it anyways. "Well... you seemed kind of... slower... than you usually are..."

Sonic's eyes widened. "...What?" he questioned in a forced tone.

"I didn't wanna say anything, but... you just seemed slower than usual," Chip explained. "...Maybe you're just tired?"

Sonic frowned at the idea, but then considered it. He did feel a bit sluggish throughout the run – a little bit, anyways. He scoffed. "Let's just go." Chip nodded, then got up off the ground and followed him to the exit.

* * *

As soon as they left the shrine, the two made a quick stop over at Pickle's lab and got their new destination. The professor told them that, again, they had to go to the shrine here and defeat the guardian, and restore the planet piece. Though, shortly after, he questioned the two if they were alright or not, and commented on how worn out and beat up they looked. Sonic just shrugged and answered for both of them, telling the man they were fine. Then they left, and went straight to Otto, whom the professor said was the person to go to when they needed to piece the tablet fragments together. After wards, they ventured back into the shrine and put the newly formed planet tablet into the star door, opening it. The two rushed through without saying another word.

* * *

The two dashed down the path, which looked a lot like the bridge in the stage they were just in, and proceeded forward, waiting for any signs of an Eggman machine. Just then, a huge devil-ray looking machine bounced right at the side of them, making Chip jump. Sonic glanced at it, and surprisingly didn't spot Eggman in it, but rather three small robots and the doctor's orb robot. Though a little bummed out that he was facing the doctor's robots instead of the doctor himself, Sonic smirked and watched as the Devil-Ray passed him by, smashing a few pots on the way.

"How long do you think it'll take me to finish this guy off?" Sonic questioned, turning to Chip while racing towards the machine.

"Uhh... normally, I'd say maybe a couple minutes, but..." Chip never really got to finish his sentence before Sonic just scoffed.

"You know what? I am _not_ slowing down, ok? And I'll prove it to you!" Sonic gave a small smirk as he sped up. "Bye!" He boosted closer to the Devil-Ray, and crashed into it, leaving Chip in the dust. Though, Sonic didn't actually damage the machine – a pixelated shield suddenly flashed around the Devil-Ray, but quickly disappeared. Suddenly, the blasters on its sides shot out at least six lasers, blocking any way for the hedgehog to maneuver left or right. Though, he didn't really pay attention to those as he blasted himself right into the machine again, this time actually starting to make some progress as it bounced back a few times.

"Proceeding combat mode: level 2," he heard the orb robot announce. The shield suddenly regenerated, and the machine's blasters hovered over to the side of him. All six lasers blasted out, and rotated around him. Though, Sonic jumped and slid under the lasers to avoid them, and when he got close enough, he homing attacked into the Devil-Ray, making the shield disappear again. He jumped over the oncoming laser, then homing attacked it again, this time sending it back.

"Proceeding to combat mode: level 3. Commencing all full out attacks now," the orb robot stated. Sonic smirked, as he realized it was going to be a rather short fight. He boosted forward and caught up to the bouncing machine. The Devil-Ray got up straight, and did just as the orb robot said it would – pull out all attacks. The arms of the machine centered, and soon after blasted their lasers, making Sonic have to quickstep to the right to avoid it. When the lasers ended, Sonic boosted and crashed into the machine, destroying the shield for the third and final time. As he bounced back, Sonic didn't give it a chance to rejuvenate its lasers as he boosted into it one last time, this time, putting the Devil-Ray out of commission.

"Ahh! I knew this would happen!" He could hear the orb robot call out. Sonic smirked as he passed it by.

"Heh, not a bad toy – but playtime's over, pal!" he shouted out as he passed it. He skidded to a stop once he caught sight of the Temple of Gaia just ahead, once again hearing Chip's tired pants as he approached him. "What did you say I was? Slower?"

"Hugh.. ok, ok! Fine, you're not going slower!" he choked out as he flew to the ground and grabbed onto Sonic's leg. "Don't leave me like that again! It's hard to catch up to you!"

Sonic picked the fairy up and placed him on top of his head, as he knew he was too worn out to continue on his own. "Well, there's no guarantee for that, buddy." He hopped down to the Temple and entered it. Though he had actually expected it, it wasn't necessarily any different from the last two Temples they had gone to. When he reached the column in the middle, Chip hopped off his head and rose the inner alter for him, which made Sonic start to question. "Hmm..." Chip turned back to him.

"What?"

"Oh nothing..." Sonic pulled out one of the dead Chaos Emeralds and placed it in the hole. After a few seconds, the Emerald glowed its original color – dark blue – and rose off the platform. It emitted a white ring of light, and suddenly the ground started to shake. Both Sonic and Chip held onto the column for support until the shaking died down. The two high-fived each other, then walked out, feeling rather accomplished by having put two pieces of the planet back together in a row.

* * *

Chip couldn't help but have a slight grin on his face the entire way back to Pickle's lab. He fluttered right next to Sonic, a small skip in his step despite having been left behind by him so many times that day. Though he'd never actually admit it, Sonic was right – the run had helped him take his mind off things, and was rather entertaining as well. The two conversed the whole way back about random things, but eventually got onto the topic of how tired they were. Chip immediately noticed the hedgehog's bloodshot eyes and the big dark circles undershadowing them. Sonic's eyelids slightly drooped, and he found himself zoning out every now and then on their conversation. Chip knew it was the only reason he was moderately able to keep up with him. If he had been fully rested, there was no way he could've stayed by his side.

His small trail of thought led him to fall behind, and he quickly caught back up. Chip found the hedgehog on his knees and in the middle of a transformation, then looked up to see no sun shining in the sky. "Guess the fun had to end sometime, right?" he heard Sonic mumble. He turned back to him and nodded silently. The two walked into the laboratory and were greeted by the Professor and Tails waving at them. Sonic gave a silent wave back, but continued down the hallway. Chip was slightly confused, but followed anyway. The two entered the bathroom, and Sonic immediately walked over to the bathtub and started to fill it up with warm water. Chip scratched his head.

"What're you doing that for?" he questioned, flying up to him. Sonic grabbed a bottle of soap and began to pour it in.

"Cleaning you – everyone looks at you like you just got mauled by a wild animal," he answered, pointing to the tub. "Get in."

Chip took a small moment to think about what Sonic was referring to, and realized he was right. He remembered the strange and concerned looks they had all given him. Quietly, he did as he was told and stepped into the water, which felt quite good against his rugged fur. He slipped himself in completely, and pushed the endless bubbles that were engulfing him away. Sonic stopped the water and drained a little so Chip could stand with the water just reaching his chest. He pulled him towards the center of the tub and grabbed a sponge. He soaked the sponge in the water and pressed it against Chip's dry blood covered chest. Moving it around he held the fairy in place with his free hand as he slowly chipped off the blood with the sponge. Afterwards, Sonic wordlessly signaled the fairy to keep his mouth closed as he wiped the blood that had gotten onto his chin and lips. After doing this for a few minutes, he scrubbed other parts of the fairy's face that had dried blood. Almost minutes later, Chip's face was completely covered in soap bubbles that he tried to keep away from his eyes, nose and mouth. Sonic lied his hand on the top of Chip's head lightly.

"Hold your breath," he commanded. Chip did as he was told, and took a deep breath. Sonic lightly pushed down on his head, enough pressure applied to make the fairy's head go under the warm water. Though, after entering it, a strange but familiar sense of fear suddenly entered him, and he suddenly was reminded of that horrid dream. Small flashbacks of nearly being drowned entered his mind, and he soon found himself letting go all the air he had just gotten in fear. He rose his hands onto Sonic's, and pulled it off, which surprising didn't take much force (as Sonic wasn't necessarily pushing down on him that hard), then leaped out of the water with a large gasp for air. He jumped onto the corner of the bathtub, shaking wildly and breathing heavily.

"Don't do that!" Chip shouted, huffing between words. He pushed his now wet hair out of his face and soon noticed most of the soap bubbles were gone. Sonic just stared with a confused look.

"Do what?" he replied.

"Push me under like that!" Sonic thought for a second, then looked back at Chip.

"What, didja think I was gonna drown you or something?" he questioned. Chip didn't answer. "Chip we both know that's the _last_ thing I would do to you. Now come back down." Chip shook his head, but still stayed silent and rather frightened. Sonic sighed. "Come on, Chip." Still no actual reply. "I won't push you under again," Sonic tried to reason with him. But his reply was still the same – silence. He placed his hand on the side of the tub and slowly pulled himself up.

"Don't make me have to pull you in," he threatened. An unnoticeable smirk appeared on the fairy's face, though Sonic didn't pay attention. He leaned over the tub, his upper body looming over the bubble filled water. He reached his hand out, for a second forgetting the fact that his arms could stretch. "I'm serious, I'll- woah!"

Leaning a little too far, Sonic lost his balance just as he reached out to grab Chip, who jumped to avoid him at the last second, and he suddenly toppled into the water head first, enveloping himself in the warmth of it. Because he was in such an awkward position, he had a little trouble getting up, but he managed to surface just fine. He spit the soapy water out of his mouth, then turned and glared daggers at Chip, who didn't seemed to be concerned at all. He was just doubled over... laughing. Sonic growled.

"You did that on purpose... didn't you?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. His annoyed expression snapped Chip out of his laughing fit, slowly but surely. He giggled once more before speaking.

"Hmm... Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," he answered with a smirk. In truth, it was just an accident, but Chip found the idea rather funny. Sonic continued to glare, but his frown turned into a small grin.

"Yeah? Well, if I'm going in, you're coming in with me!" Sonic outstretched his arm with such speed that Chip didn't have time to fly away. He grabbed his small foot and yanked him back into the water, making a splash. Chip surfaced, coughing and sputtering the horrible tasting water out, but still continued to laugh. Sonic quietly rose an eyebrow, then started to join him in chuckling lightly. About a minute later, the two stopped laughing, and Chip finally let Sonic finish cleaning him on two conditions – that Sonic promised not to ever push him under the water again, and if Chip could wash him after he was done. Sonic admittedly was a little skeptical about the idea, as he thought he didn't really need it, until he saw the dried blood and dirt coating his fur. He reluctantly agreed, and continued his work on the fairy. When he finished washing all the blood off of him, he started washing out Chip's greasy hair. Sonic occasionally messed with it, spiking it up into a punkrocker's mohawk, then flattening it down and putting it into other crazy styles, which made the both of them laugh. Though, when Sonic stopped messing with his hair and reached down to clean off his necklace, Chip swatted his large hand away, telling him that he could wash it himself. Sonic rose an eyebrow at his over protection of the jewel.

"Chip, you gotta stop this obsession of yours – it's gonna be your downfall someday," he stated which rubbing his eye. He watched the fairy snap the string off of his neck, and noticed that the ends were beginning to wear out. "Not everybody wants to take it from you." Chip didn't really listen to him as he wiped off the trails of blood that had gotten onto his necklace, then tied it back around his neck. He looked up to him, and a small smile appeared on his face. Sonic sighed as he realized what was next.

"My turn," Chip announced, then climbed up onto his back, sponge in hand. He started scrubbing his rather bloody backside, scraping all of it off. Once he was done, he dipped down, wiped the sponge off in the water, and scrubbed the blood and dirt off his sides, which had multiple small cuts on them. He felt Sonic tense up every time he wiped the sponge over one of the wounds, and whispered 'sorry' to him every time he did. As he did so, he tried to recall when and where Sonic had gotten all of those wounds, and came up with a lot more memories than expected. His first thought after seeing him so bloody was that the blood had come from him, himself, but then he realized how much more Sonic had been beaten down that he recalled. After unconsciously wiping his chest with the sponge, he moved to his arms – probably the dirtiest parts of Sonic's body. They were covered with blood and dirt, and his fur had become rugged from all the fighting he had put them through. He started on his left arm and scrubbed off all the blood and soot, occasionally scraping over a small cut which made Sonic wince. His hands were quite red too – his knuckles were slightly bloody from fighting so much, and his palms and fingertips were both stained red. Chip silently scrubbed both of his hands until they were back to their original pale blue color. Then he moved onto Sonic's other arm, which was much bloodier. He started from his furry wrist, then moved his way up his arm. Occasionally he'd accidentally scrub over a small wound, which would earn a tiny wince from the werehog. Though, Sonic practically jumped right out of the water when Chip just lightly scraped over his large cut he got last night.

"GYAAAH!" he yelped while jumping up slightly in pain. He accidentally threw Chip back in the water as he clutched his sore arm, and held onto the side of the tub for support. Short, agony-filled gasps were the only thing audible as an awkward silence between the two filled the air.

"...I... I'm so sorry, Sonic," Chip apologized, clasping his hands in front of his mouth in shock. Sonic didn't reply immediately, nor did he make eye contact with him.

"... It's ok... I'm fine..." he stated in a strained voice, heavy breaths in between. Chip climbed back up onto him and looked at the large wound.

"Where did you get that?" he questioned. He knew it was a recently obtained cut, and he had noticed it throughout the day, but he didn't particularly know where it had come from.

"Last night... when the bridge collapsed... a piece of bamboo went through it," Sonic answered, still clutching onto it. Chip sighed, then put a hand to his chest, remembering last night – remembering that sharp pain he felt after he fell off of Sonic's back when the bridge had collapsed.

"I'm sorry..."

Sonic looked at the fairy, then rose an eyebrow. "What're you apologizing for? Not like you could've done anything to prevent it."

"Yeah, but if you weren't in such a hurry, maybe you could've seen it before it happened..." The two stayed silent, considering the thought. Finally, Chip held up the sponge to Sonic. "Maybe you should do this... You know what you're doing."

Sonic shook his head, and pushed the sponge back. "No – you're already this far, so you might as well finish the job."

"Yeah, but-"

"It's ok – just stay away from that cut, and I'll be fine."

Chip sighed, then reluctantly continued on. He cleaned the parts he hadn't gotten to yet with much more caution than before, and avoided the large cut at all costs. A few minutes later, he finished, though it seemed like an eternity with the time he was taking. The two got out, and Sonic drained the now dirty water. He grabbed a towel for both himself and Chip, then proceeded to dry himself off. Though, impatience got the best of him, and he dried himself off a little too fast, as he fur poofed up, like in cartoons, a couple seconds after he finished. The event admittedly made Chip laugh at him, which brought a small, rather unnoticeable grin to Sonic's face as he tried to brush his fur back down, yawning in between. Once he accomplished that, the two walked out of the bathroom, Chip occasionally apologizing for things Sonic didn't necessarily believe were his fault to begin with. Though, he found himself zoning out again and stumbling a bit, his head reducing the fairy's voice to nothing but an echo ringing in his ears. Sonic staggered into the wall unintentionally, but managed to keep his balance. He could see Chip's worried eyes staring into his as he questioned something he couldn't make out. Taking a guess, he replied.

"I-I'm fine... Let's go."

Sonic let Chip go in before him so he could follow. The two walked back into the lab, where the professor, Tails, and Amy sat patiently, and wove to them when they walked in. Amy got up and gave Sonic a quick hug, though he wasn't fully aware of that until he felt her let go of him and went back to her seat. The professor began informing the two of where they needed to go next - none of which Sonic could understand, and he hoped desperately that Chip was listening to it for him. His hand reached out for the nearest wall to catch himself as he stumbled again, this time nearly falling over. Everyone must've noticed, as the professor stopped his explanation and spoke with a concerned tone. He opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn't form any words. His sight was blacking out, and he was beginning to lose consciousness. He lost all feeling, but he realized that he collapsed onto the floor. Everything blacked out, and all Sonic could make out were worried shouts of what he presumed were his name right before he lost all consciousness.

Chip examined the fallen werehog with both shock and worry. "Sonic?" he called out for about the third time in a row. But still no reply. He shook Sonic's arm lightly, trying to wake him up, but he still wasn't moving. Tails and Amy joined him in worrying, until the professor bent down and turned Sonic around so that he was laying on his back. He put his ear to his chest, hearing for a heartbeat, which he let a small sigh of relief escape him when he got one. He took a look at his pupils, which were dilated, then turned back to the three.

"He's quite alright," Pickle stated, earning comforted sighs from each of them. "He's just... asleep." He spoke those words like he had been expecting it for quite a long time. Chip put his hands to his mouth in fear. He knew something like this would happen eventually, as Sonic had been mentioning his fatigue for quite some time, then started to feel guilty. The fairy had occasionally fallen asleep when he shouldn't have, and was always a lot less tired than he was.

"Will you three help me bring him to the bedroom?" the professor questioned, snapping Chip from his thoughts. The three nodded and did as they were told, picking Sonic up and carrying him to the bedroom. They lied him onto one of the two beds and reluctantly walked out one by one, but Chip stayed behind. He noticed the professor look back at him with concern as he was exiting, but then nodded and turned the light off, closing the door as he left. Chip sighed, then looked back at Sonic. Rubbing his eyes and yawning slightly, he curled up against him and pulled his arm around him as a blanket. He stayed silent and stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours, but then finally closed his eyes and fell asleep in an attempt to push all the problems and worries from his mind.

* * *

yeah, not the best, but whatever. for some god forsaken reason, i wasn't in the writing mood when i was writing this chapter, so if anything seemed rushed, that's why.

please review!


	14. Alone

jesus christ, how long has it been since i've updated this? well, bad news - there's a major possibility that this may be the last update for this story for quite a while. how long? god only knows. but... yeah.

also, the stage in this chapter is the hd level, and not the wii ones. last one, i swear - the rest of the levels of this game are gonna be straight out of the wii version, not counting boss battles and other concepts

* * *

_'Chip honestly thought he could avoid what he knew was coming. As soon as he found out where exactly he was, he ran. He didn't really know where he was running to, but it didn't stop him as he dashed forward as fast as he could. He occasionally tripped on something – a tree root sticking out of the ground, or an inconveniently placed rock – though he still kept running. He needed to escape his fate, needed to get away from his impending doom. Harsh breaths left his mouth as he ran, though he didn't slow down. Chip didn't look back to see if he was being followed, as he believed it would slow him down..._

_ Until he started hearing that voice again._

_ "You actually think you can escape?" Those words echoed in his head. He took a quick glance around, but ignored the statement and kept running. "Pathetic!"_

_ Something seemingly burning wrapped around his leg, tripping him. He fell to the ground with a yelp, and was suddenly pulled back in the opposite direction. He screamed and clawed at the ground, trying to hang onto something, but missed it as he was pulled back. Something pulled him up in the air, which he presumed was the burning object around his leg, and he felt more wrap around his wrists and stomach. He looked around and tried to pull free, but with no luck. The burns he was experiencing were actually coming from lavender colored, flaming tentacles, as he soon learned, though he __had a feeling the flames weren't nearly as dangerous as a real one. The tentacles turned his body around, and he was once again face to face with his living nightmare. Only this time, he looked slightly different. His ears were almost nonexistent, and were just appearing as small bumps at the side of his scaly head. His two bottom eyes were beginning to glow a bright white color, though his third eye remained the same. The bluish white crest he had began to look like a jagged crown around his head, surrounding his purple flame 'hair', which surprisingly wasn't being put out by the rain. And the tentacles – seven of them, Chip counted – were coming from the back of his head, two of them flowing freely. Chip gasped deeply and attempted to free himself, but again with no luck whatsoever._

_ The unnamed creature didn't say another word as his four tentacles wrapped around Chip's limbs suddenly let go, and the one around his waist suddenly thrusted him into a small but deep pond that was closer than he thought. The burning sensation went away as soon as he hit the water, but the one around his waist kept him under. Chip pulled on the tentacle in an attempt to get out of its grasp, but it had a rather tight grip. And the grip got even tighter as Chip was suddenly forced to let out the limited oxygen he had. In a rather short time his lungs were already burning for air, though the creature showed no signs of bringing him back to the surface for it. He grasped at the slightly burning tentacle and still attempted to shove it off his waist with little __to no success, and he was paying the consequence for it. He had a very little amount of air left in him, and he was beginning to lose consciousness. His squirming slowly came to a stop, and he soon after closed his eyes. He gave up, and he slowly let the last breath he had go...'_

Chip gasped in deeply as he woke up rather abruptly. His breaths were heavy, and he soon found himself coughing violently. His hand went to his chest and clutched onto it, trying to get air back into his lungs. He coughed a couple more times, then he was back to heavy breathing. _'Why do I feel like I just drowned...?'_ he questioned himself, trying to think of what had happened. He rose his hand to his hair and pushed it back, which was surprisingly a little damp. His mind recollected what had happened to him in his dream, and he suddenly found himself staring at his ankles and wrists. They all had slight burn marks, all four of them. Chip gulped.

_'Maybe because I... did...'_

His attention turned to Sonic, as he needed comfort and reassurance that all of what had happened was just a figment of his imagination, and not real. Though, Sonic was still asleep, and in his regular hedgehog form for that matter. Quickly, the frightened fairy hopped over to the window sill and pushed away the curtains. It was daytime – late afternoon, it seemed – but still Sonic didn't show any signs of awakening. Chip went back to the bed and lied his hands on Sonic's arm. He lightly shook it, and called out his name gently.

"Sonic?"

The hedgehog didn't move, or reply. Chip sighed and decided to let him be. He curled up beside him and stared ahead of him, too afraid to fall asleep again. For a bit over an hour he stayed silent, not wanting to bother Sonic, and eventually found himself getting rather exhausted. He rested his head against the hedgehog's chest and fought the urge to fall asleep again. Though, it was a short battle; he could see the sun setting outside the window, and the darkened orange tint it was giving out was beginning to make Chip's eyelids fall. A few more minutes, and he found himself asleep again -

Found himself in the midst of his nightmares again.

_'What had he done to deserve this? Chip asked himself that question quite a few times. He would've sighed with annoyance, as he knew what was coming, but he still believed he had a chance to get out of it. Looking around briefly, he spotted no signs of the creature coming near him. Chip gulped, as it had been like that the three times before, but then pushed the thought out of his mind as he ran over to the tallest and closest tree he could find. He leaped onto it and climbed it as fast as he could, occasionally looking around to see if the creature was __anywhere in sight. Again, he wasn't, and Chip cautiously continued his ascension. Though, near the top branch, a rather loud boom of thunder cracked nearby, making him lose his balance and fall off. He managed to catch himself with his legs, but almost fell off again as he spotted what was in front of him._

_ Chip screamed out loud. The creature was dangerously close to him, and he was just dangling right in front of his face by his legs. He spotted a glint of silver to his right, and soon realized it was the dagger the creature had from his first encounter with him. As the creature raised the dagger up and prepared to strike, Chip unconsciously let go of the branch he was holding onto and dropped. He hadn't realized how high he had climbed until he began falling from it. He hit a few branches on the way down, and tried to grab onto one, but his grip kept slipping, and he was falling way too fast. He screamed again, and kept trying to grab onto something, but again missed. He was dangerously close to hitting the ground, and he was quickly regretting letting go of that branch. He screamed once again before making contact with the damp, muddy forest floor-_

"AAH!" Chip yelped out loud, suddenly sitting up. He looked around and gulped, choking on his own rushed breaths. It took a quick look at his surroundings for him to realized that it was all just a dream. His heart was beating rapidly, and he collapsed onto Sonic's furry chest, tears of fear forming in his eyes. He bit his lip in fear and clenched his eye's shut. After a few minutes, he reopened his bloodshot eyes and sighed. The room was rather dark – probably late in the night – and Sonic was back to his night form. And the quick loop-around of time make Chip ponder how long he and Sonic had been sleeping. Then he realized -

"Sonic?" he questioned, turning to him. "A-are you awake?" He was surprised at how shaky his voice sounded, but it didn't matter to him when he heard no reply. Sonic stayed completely silent, the only sounds coming from him were light snores.

"Sonic... please wake up!" His voice was breaking. He shook Sonic's arm, harder than before, but he still didn't budge. "Sonic!" Chip was trembling wildly, and he only shook more when he heard nothing but silence in the air. He took a few short breaths and lowered his head. "I'm so scared..." he murmured. Everything was silent except fro Chip's heavy breathing. He sighed, as he realized Sonic wasn't going to wake up for a while, perhaps another day or two. He wanted to fall asleep as well, but he just couldn't.

He couldn't fall asleep. Chip couldn't decide whether it was the fear of his dreams, or just insomnia, but he couldn't sleep anymore. He didn't want to see the creature plaguing his dreams ever again, and the fact that Sonic wasn't really there to comfort him just made him fear sleep even more. He looked back at Sonic, who had changed sleeping positions without Chip noticing and sighed. On one hand, he wanted to stay next to him until he woke up, but on the other, he knew that wasn't going to be for a while, and he was getting somewhat hungry. Getting up, Chip crawled over the werehog and hopped on over to the door. He looked back at Sonic one last time, who was actually starting to move. His eyes perked and he stepped forward, but he soon frowned as he realized that Sonic was only changing positions again, and nothing more. With another sigh, he opened the door and walked through it, closing it as he left.

He walked uneventfully to the lab and took a seat at the table. Surprisingly, nobody was out, probably all sleeping, and because of it, the room was completely quiet. As unsettling as it was, Chip stayed there and pulled out one of his last chocolate bars. After he unwrapped it, he slowly broke it into small pieces and ate them one by one, growing a bit more discouraged and a bit more lonely each time. That is, until a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You're up a bit late, aren't you my boy?"

Chip took a small glace over to the professor, then turned back to his food. "Why so melancholy?" Pickle questioned. The fairy sighed, then broke another piece off of his chocolate bar.

"Can't sleep..." he answered. The professor rose an eyebrow and took a seat.

"Oh – why not?"

Chip was a little reluctant to answer, but did so anyway. "...I.. keep having this dream, and it's really bothering me..." he stated, strain from exhaustion in his voice. The professor nodded.

"And what's the dream about?"

Chip shook his head, then broke off another section of his chocolate. "I don't wanna talk about it..." The professor nodded again, understanding perfectly.

"You know, reoccurring dreams usually signify something important," Pickle informed, getting up from his seat. "You should at least talk to Sonic about it."

"I can't – Sonic's asleep. That's why I'm out here." Both shared a moment of silence, then the professor began to walk out. "Hey – do you think my dream might... you know.. be related to my memories somehow?" Chip questioned. The man turned back.

"There's always a possibility, my boy," he answered.

"Any way of finding out for sure?"

Pickle walked back to the table and considered his answer. "A small round of hypnosis may just do the trick." Chip listened closely. "Though, it's not a hundred percent guaranteed. You may get something out of it, but because of your amnesia, you may just get nothing." Chip nodded.

"It's ok – I'll do it."

…

Finally opening his tired eyes, Sonic started to stir, though almost immediately after, he wanted to fall back asleep. He groaned and buried his face into the pillow, but after a few minutes he looked over to the window. It was dark out, which made him wonder how long he had been asleep. And it was rather quiet too. Nothing but the sound of his breathing was audible. He pressed his lips and looked around – nobody was near, not even Chip, which surprised him. He thought for sure that Chip would be there, waiting for him to wake up. He sat up on the bed, yawning and finally got up. He opened the door and walked through it, leaving the room. The whole place was also pretty quiet, but he could make out a calm, quiet voice farther away from him, which Sonic presumed was the professor's. Curiously, he walked towards the voice, the words getting clearer as he got closer.

"...You remember anything about your age or where you live?"

"...N-no..."

Sonic frowned confusedly at the strange questions, but continued onto where the voices were coming from and finally found them. Both the professor and Chip were sitting in chairs across from each other. The professor was swinging a bronze pocket watch in front of the fairy's face, while Chip just looked like he was in some sort of trance. The room was rather dark with only one ceiling light on. Sonic rose an eyebrow, as the professor apparently didn't notice him walk in.

"Uh... professor? Why are you hypnotizing Chip?" he questioned in a tired voice. The man turned to him and gave him a glance that immediately silenced him.

"I'll inform you of it later – for now, take a seat and be quiet." The professor turned back to Chip, who seemed unfazed by Sonic's presence, which he just presumed that he didn't notice him there. "Any memories of friends or family?" Pickle continued. Sonic nodded silently, as he realized what he was preforming hypnosis for. Both waited for Chip's answer, which seemed to take longer than expected.

"...Y-yeah... I... I do.." he stated, shocking both of them. Though, the professor stayed determined to obtain whatever information he could about Chip.

"Parent? Sibling? Cousin?" he continued. There was another long pause before Chip answered.

"..Brother..." Chip answered.

"And his name?"

Unlike the other two answers, this one came rather quickly. "...I don't remember.." Both Sonic and the professor frowned. The progress they were making had just ended abruptly. The professor stopped swinging the pocket watch and looked at the time on it.

"Well, I believe 30 minutes is more than enough time. And if nothing else, we got something out of it. I'm going to count to three. When I reach three and snap, you will be out of your trance," Pickle stated. "One, two, three." As he said he would, he snapped, and Chip finally opened his eyes. He blinked a couple times and rubbed them. He seemed to be a bit dazed, but soon got out of it and looked over to the professor, completely passing Sonic by.

"So... when're we gonna start?" he questioned, seeming quite anxious. Both stayed silent, and the professor ran a hand through his hair with a bit of nervousness. Chip finally caught the message and sighed. "We just ended it... didn't we?"

Pickle sighed, then nodded. "You have a brother, my boy." Chip perked up. "But that was all the information we could obtain. We couldn't get his name, or what he looks like."

Chip sighed, but gave a small grin. "Well, it's more than I thought I'd get..." From the darkness of the corner he was in, Sonic rose an eyebrow.

"More than you thought you'd get? You only got one simple fact. You have absolutely no confidence in yourself, do you?" he questioned. Chip finally gave him a glance, and in the blink of an eye, he was over to where Sonic was sitting, clinging onto him as if for dear life. He rubbed his eye, then put his hand on the fairy's back.

"Sonic, when'd you wake up?" Chip asked, in a high voice, as if worried.

"'Bout a few minutes ago..."

Sonic sighed and let Chip cling onto him for a while. He began to wonder why the fairy was acting so worried, but got interrupted as the professor cleared his throat and called out Sonic's name. He motioned him to come towards him, which he did. The professor began whispering into his ear.

"...You know why Chip was out here in the first place, do you not?" he questioned in a low tone.

"No... should I?"

The professor shrugged slightly. "He informed me earlier that he was having reoccurring dreams. He didn't want to talk about them, but I'm getting slightly concerned for the boy... They seem to be bothering him quite a bit." Sonic stared down at Chip with worried eyes, then turned back to the professor. "Perhaps you could talk to him about it. He seems to listen to you."

Sonic nodded, then backed away a little. He looked back down at Chip, who seemed to be avoiding his gaze, as if a little embarrassed. "So," the professor started. "Are you two up for a bit of traveling?" Sonic unsurely nodded. "Good. Your next destination is Holoska – there are a few places you have yet to explore. So when Tails wakes, he'll take you two back there."

Both Sonic and Chip took a seat over at the couches, waiting for Tails. Sonic sighed, and looked over to Chip, shaking his head. "Chip, why didn't you tell me you were having repeating dreams?" He questioned. Chip still avoided eye contact.

"I was going to, but you were asleep..." he stated in a voice a little more than a whisper.

"You could've just woken me up-"

"I tried!" Both stayed silent for a few seconds before Chip spoke up again. "You wouldn't wake up..." Sonic sighed and turned away, realizing what he had just done. He didn't know whether the reoccurring dreams Chip was having were the same dream that had ultimately scarred him back in Chun-nan, but he started to feel guilty nonetheless. And he wasn't really there to tell him that none of it was real.

"I'm sorry, Chip..."

Sonic realized he wasn't going to get a reply, and sighed. He couldn't tell whether Chip was mad at him or not, but he didn't talk to him the whole time they waited for their ride. The whole wait was quiet and discomforting, and the atmosphere was unsettling for the both of them. Sonic felt the urge to just wake Tails up himself, just to end the uncomfortable moment, but he decided not to. About an hour of silence passed, and Sonic nearly found himself falling back asleep, but Tails' awaited appearance brought him away from the thought. The three hopped into the plane soon after and left for Holoska.

The plane ride was as discomforting as ever. Nobody talked, not even one word, throughout the whole ride. Though, despite how silent as he had been, Sonic noticed how nervous Chip looked. And he didn't really blame him – the past nights in Chun-nan were a torturous bunch for him, so it was only natural for him to seem a bit antsy. They landed in Holoska, expectantly at night, and the whole place seemed unchanged. The same people were out walking around, each waving to the two as they passed. They talked to each of them, asking them all if they had the moon tablet they needed to progress. It turned out that Jari-Thure had what they were looking for, though he still felt guilty about failing his wife. But after some reassurance from Sonic, he finally handed the tablet over, and they were on their way. The two entered the shrine, and Chip put in the tablet, gaining access to the next part of their journey. Sonic turned to Chip.

"You ready for this?" he asked.

Chip just grunted in reply.

* * *

The two entered the stage on a large ice berg surrounded by freezing cold water. Sonic walked forward, but instead shouted "YAH!" in place of his usual howl. He noticed Chip raising an eyebrow, but again he said nothing. Sighing, he walked forward, but was once again greeted by a party of Dark Gaia spawn and two fan enemies. Sonic charged forward, picking them off one by one, occasionally attacking them in groups. His reign eventually stopped when one regular nightmare swung its arms and hit him in the face, but he quickly discarded it and reduced it to nothing with a couple claw swipes. Turning around, Sonic dashed over to the two fan robots and gave each a smackdown before turning back to Chip, who slowly flew to catch up.

"I'm getting kinda tired of these enemies," he stated before wiping his forehead off of nonexistent sweat. Hearing no reply, he silently rolled his eyes and continued forward. He jumped onto a path of slippery ice platforms, sliding his way from one to another. He pushed some more fans out of his way, then pressed on with Chip slowly following behind. Reaching the nearest land mass, he skated past a fan that blew fire instead of air or ice, and came face to face with another hoard of enemies. He sighed then bit his lip, while turning back to the fan robot. Suddenly sparking an idea within his mind, he picked it up and aimed it at the other enemies, expectantly catching them all on fire whenever they got close enough. Although, one of the dinos managed to get behind him and knocked the fan out of his hands, suddenly catching him on fire. Like the rest of the lifeforms around him, Sonic ran around alit with flames trying to find a way to cool them off without dunking himself into the ice-cold water.

His answer was to the right of him, just at the beginning of the platform – a barrel of water conveniently placed. Without thinking, he swiped at the barrel with his claws, getting some of the cool water onto him, then got down on the ground then rolled all the flames away with the remaining water on the ground. Sonic got up and faced where he was originally planning to go, only to see that the only real things that inhabited the trail was one of those gem key holders like the ones in Spagonia and the fire fan left completely unharmed... dancing...

Sonic blinked, then shook his head. "The hell is he dancing about...?" he whispered to himself, then looked upward to his next route. The path continued upward on the cliff beside him, but he wasn't sure how to get up there just yet. Though, a quiet voice broke his thought.

"You coming?" He heard Chip ask from a slight distance. Sonic looked back to the path behind him, but didn't see him there. He then looked upward, to his left, and saw the fairy looking down on him from a pillar of ice chunks. He finally put two and two together, and nodded, climbing up onto it. Once up, he looked over to the real path, and noticed it was quite a big gap between him and the path. But he decided to back up a little, get on all fours, and and dash jump as far as he could. It was quite close, but Sonic managed to grab onto the ledge before falling back down. He pulled himself up and gazed ahead – the road was blocked thanks to a rather strong looking door of ice, but ahead also layed the blue gem key that he needed. He went over to grab it, then fell back down onto the platform below and placed the key inside the holder.

Hearing something opening up from a distance, which he presumed was the door, he got back up onto the main path and continued on. Past the door were rows of moving buzz saws and another group of enemies, which he slowly made his way to and beat them all into oblivion one by one, trying desperately not to slip right into the buzz saws. Some of the nightmares managed to land hits on him, but he quickly got back at them and clawed them down too. Once done, he made his way over to the wall, on which a small nub was sticking out of, helping Sonic's progress. He grabbed on and swung up, and again was greeted by hoards of Dark Gaia spawn.

"Geez, how many of these guys ARE there?" Sonic couldn't help but ask. Looking slightly ahead, he spotted the lever which marked the next path, completely unguarded. He decided to discard the enemies all at once and pushed through all of them to make his way towards the lever, only to discover that the door was completely jammed with ice. Turning back, he looked around for one of the fire-fans, but saw none. Sighing, he ran back towards the enemies blocking his way and destroyed each of them, hoping that something would happen if he obliterated them all. Thankfully, it did – just as the last nightmare disappeared, a fire-fan poofed out of nowhere right in front of the door. Cautiously, he picked it up and aimed it at the door. The fan blew out fire in its said direction, melting the ice jamming the door and furthermore allowing Sonic and Chip to pass.

Sonic tossed the fan off the cliff, almost accidentally hitting Chip in the process, who still wordlessly followed. He noticed the fairy shivering a bit, but decided that he probably wouldn't want to reply if he had asked if he was ok. He pulled the lever instead, opening the door and a new pathway. Walking through it, the two spotted rather unstable ice pillars leading the way across a giant body of water. Cautiously, Sonic hopped onto the first one, and expectantly, it started shaking wildly. He quickly jumped onto the next one, then the next, until he made all of them topple over into the water. He landed safely on the ground, then looked ahead. A new group of nightmares popped up from out of the ground, and started making their way towards him. By then, Sonic was getting kind of fed up with them.

"Screw it – I'm sick of these guys! They can all die in a fire!" he shouted, pushing them all out of the way. Speaking of fire, the next door seemed to be jammed with ice again, and there happened to be a switch and a lever right next to it. One of them had to have activated fire – there was no fire-fans around! Thinking quick, Sonic dashed over to the lever and pulled it. It activated four chutes of fire around the door, melting the ice. Once it finished, Sonic ran over and stepped on the switch, opening the door. In the middle of the room was one of the turnable levers from previous areas, which he quickly made his way to. Unfortunately though, as soon as he stepped within range of it, a circle of nightmares and dinos came up, interrupting his process.

Sighing, he turned to them, slightly gritting his teeth in annoyance, and lunged at them one by one, reducing them all to nothing but purple residue. Another group came up, but Sonic was quick to put them back down as soon as he reached them. Once all were gone, he turned to the lever and was quick to activate it. As he turned it, he noticed a block of ice move out of the wall, acting as a platform to get up to where he needed to go. As soon as he finished rotating it though, he heard a small yelp from behind. His heart slightly jumping, Sonic turned back and saw Chip sitting next to the water, breathing heavily and looking like he had just seen a ghost.

"Chip, what happened?" he questioned. Chip gulped, but regained his posture.

"N-nothing..." he stuttered, getting up onto his feet. "Just.. thought I saw something in the water..." The sudden statement peaked Sonic's curiosity, and he found himself looking out at the water, but saw nothing but a small fish jumping about in the water a little bit into the distance.

"...I don't see anything," Sonic stated, scratching his head. Chip seemed to disagree, though.

"He was there... I know it..." he whispered to himself as Sonic was walking away. He turned back to him and saw him running towards him, as if he saw 'him' again. Then it dawned on him – who was 'he'? Chip didn't know that many people...

Was 'he' the guy from his dream?

Sonic climbed up onto the next path before asking what had been on his mind for quite some time now. "So Chip... what's this dream of yours about?" he questioned while climbing upward. He turned to his right, where the path continued, and noticed Chip looked at him with a deep frown.

"That's not exactly something I wanna talk about right now," he confirmed madly, turning away. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Oh bull! You've barely talked about _anything_ this entire trip!" he started to argue whilst swinging from pole to pole. "Look, I'm sorry if I enraged you earlier, but I can do absolutely _nothing_ about it if it's not in my power! Now talk about it already!"

As he climbed up the top of the mountain-like path, he noticed Chip staring at him with his mouth slightly agape, hurt tinging his eyes. Sonic didn't realize he had been yelling at him until he saw the look on the fairy's scared face. He sighed sadly as he walked across a very narrow beam of ice over to the next area, where he was once again face to face with unstable ice pillars. "I'm sorry, Chip," he said calmly. "It's just... I'm trying to help you, and you're not letting me. I mean, I know I probably can't do much, but at least let me _try_."

He heard no real response, but watched Chip as he flew ahead of him. Sonic jumped on the unstable pillars to catch up to him, knocking down all of them as he went. As he got back onto dry land, he was about to ask about his dream again, but was, again, interrupted by enemies – only Eggman's robots instead of Dark Gaia spawn. He went after the threats first – the ones that shot projectiles – before doing anything else. He made short work of each of them, though accidentally knocked down one of the fire fans in the process. Not making a deal of it, though, he continued to destroy the remaining robots until there were none left. Sonic looked around the area and spotted his path continuing on another land mass with nothing to lead the way across the water. He frowned, until he spotted a large ice pillar that actually looked pretty sturdy, unlike the other ones. He quickly ran over to the remaining fire fan and picked it up, carrying it back to the pillar. He aimed it at the pillar and and proceeded to melt the ice enough so he could knock it down. Afterwards, he tossed the fan into the water, and with a few claw swipes, broke the pillar off, creating a pathway across the water. Careful not to slip off, he ran across it, then turned to Chip again.

"So... do you wanna talk about your dream at all?" he questioned again.

"No."

Sonic frowned. He wasn't necessarily surprised, as he was kind of expecting that he wouldn't want to talk about it, but Chip had just smacked him down completely. With a small grunt and a roll of his eyes, he climbed the wall in front of him in silence, without saying another word. He continued on, quietly, completely bypassing any enemies he came in contact with. But it wasn't long before the slippery traction the ice gave off took its toll, and Sonic found himself slipping and falling down a half-pipe structure of ice. He eventually landed within a group of nightmares. To his right were two fire fans, which Sonic picked one up without hesitation. He walked forward over to the door, blasting all the nightmare into flames whenever they came close. He wasn't messing around anymore – he wanted this night to be over and done with - _now_. He loved Holoska, he could never deny that... but something was annoying the everliving hell out of him. He couldn't tell whether he was just tired of the same routine every night, or was fed up with Chip's stubbornness, but something was ticking him off.

He melted the ice blocking the door then stepped on the switch to open it, tossing the fan aside. Sonic walked through, and again, found himself slipping on the ice and sliding down the path. Only this path ended with a sudden drop to one's doom. As soon as he approached the drop, Sonic jumped up as far as he could and grabbed onto a rather large icicle. Though, like everything else he had encountered throughout the night, it was rather unstable, and shook as soon as he latched onto it. Quickly, he jumped off and landed onto the next platform. He jumped over to the next half-pipe, which also had it's drop to sudden death. He quickly jumped, nearly overshooting the platform from all the acceleration he had gained, but still managed to land safely. Hopping over to the last half-pipe, he saw that the path branched out into two smaller routes – one longer, but slightly easier, and one that looked like a short cut, only potentially more dangerous. He decided to take the short cut, and continued forward instead of the right. He clutched onto each of the icicles, all three breaking as soon as he touched them, and made his way over to the real path.

But of course, as always, a group of robots and nightmares spawned as soon as he walked towards the exit. He attacked the wizard first, then the projectile robot, accidentally breaking open the water barrels right next to it. Some of the water got on him, but he didn't care as he continued to destroy the two remaining robots. As soon as they dispersed, a flame fan appeared, and Sonic was quick to grab it and aim at the door, melting the ice on it. Throwing the fan out of the way, he pulled the lever and went through the door, though was greeted by a strip of slippery ice and a bottomless pit beneath it. He had no time to think before he slipped down the path, only having a second to turn in the way the path was leading to avoid certain death. At the bottom of the path he slightly lost control and jumped off, but managed to land safely on the next area.

Which again, lit up with a crapload of enemies.

Robots with chainsaw swords, projectile robots, wizards – they were all there. Sonic went after the wizards first, avoiding the blasts the projectile robots were firing. Once done, he went to the projectiles, and beat them all until they were nothing, then the regular robots. More enemies came, but Sonic slightly managed a smirk.

"Oh, it's war."

Like last time, he went after the wizards first, which respawned after he killed them, then took out the projectile robot, then the robots with shields. Finally, they stopped respawning, and Sonic found himself breathing heavily again. He wiped some cold sweat off his forehead, then looked ahead – it looked like the end of the area, which he was quite happy for, but then he noticed how quiet it was. The chilly winds seemed to pick up and he was eventually much colder than he was before. He looked back, and spotted Chip sitting in the snow, shivering wildly, his fur blowing with the wind. Sonic sighed and walked over to him, picking him up into his arms. The fairy opened his mouth to say something, probably to reject his help, but nothing came out. He stayed silent and curled up against Sonic's warm fur, trying to regain the lost heat he had. Sonic didn't say anything either, and continued down the road, into the cavern ahead.

* * *

few things to point out -

a: i was planning to put both the hd level AND the wii levels for Holoska, but i decided not to bore you

2: i have no knowledge of hypnosis whatsoever

d: if Sonic seemed a bit _too_ aggressive in this chapter, i'm sorry - the heat in the area i live in is very unbearable, and it makes me mad, which in turn makes me write mad.

4: i'm getting tired of writing battle sequences. can you tell?

well, that's all for now. hope you enjoyed. please review~


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